The Tiny Bacteria
by C. L. Furlong
Summary: PART 2 OF 2. Enhanced by genetic engineering, a pestilence without parallel throughout Katkind History is unleashed by one kat, and all shall perish unless a cure is found... quickly!
1. The Tiny Bacteria: Part One

**TITLE:**

THE TINY BACTERIA – Part One

**AUTHOR:**

C. L. Furlong

**DATE:**

July 17, 2002

**FINISHED:**

January 17, 2003

**LAST REVISION:**

January 17, 2003

**E-MAIL:**

chance_lizard_furlong@aeiou.pt 

**RATING:**

PG13 (some violence and gore)

**SUMMARY:**

Enhanced by genetic engineering, a pestilence with no parallel throughout katkind history is unleashed by one kat, and all will perish unless a cure is found… quickly!

**DISCLAIMER:**

SWAT Kats and anything related to the series is the property of Hanna-Barbera. No infringement is intended and no profit is gained with this fiction.

**COMMENTS:**

The continuation of my "Final Resistance" series and the kind of story I've wanted to write for a long time now… However, I'm pretty much sure many people won't share my enthusiasm over this fiction. Well, if you're patient enough to read through the prologue, I think you're patient enough to withstand the massiveness of this story. Either way, I truly hope you SWAT Kats fans out there enjoy it… Cheers to you all!

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**_"I'm letting you help me... as a living test tube for my new bacteria strain!"_**

**_ _**

**_Dr. Viper _****in_ "The Giant Bacteria"_**

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**PROLOGUE******

The groove on the enzymatic protein attached to the specific promoter binding site, disrupting the hydrogen bonds and spreading apart the two carbon-phosphate backbone strands just enough for the enzyme to run along the large macromolecule.

A small molecule, constituted by two rings of atoms, one mainly nitrogenous and the other mainly carbonous, and a small group of phosphoric acid wandered towards the enzyme. The protein catalyzed the bonding of that small molecule to the other in its active site and moved on. More binding reactions were made until two new DNA molecules emerged from the former molecule.

The enzyme then moved on to initiate the same process on another DNA molecule. Along with that enzyme there were thousands of others just like that one, all of them busy with the very same task: replicating DNA.

The process was so powerful and so exact that from one DNA molecule, two would arise, and from those two, four would be made, and then eight, sixteen, thirty-two... Each one of them bearing exactly the same information as the primordial molecules deposited in that nearly fervent container, molecules that once were circular before being digested with specific restriction enzymes.

Such was the power of PCR...

That would have been a normal laboratory procedure that could have been made in any Genetics lab, be it on Megakat Biochemical Laboratories or the Enforcers' labs.

It would be a simple and widespread procedure, indeed... weren't it for the small foreign DNA fragment enzymatically attached to the original molecule that was being replicated along with the rest of the primordial double helix...

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The shots were well aimed. He had hit them at the right time, when they were more vulnerable and willing to accept the genes he provided them. But he knew that not all of them would accept the genes. Many would repel them shortly. But others would accept and keep the foreign ring of DNA. He'd have to grow them in order to know which living beings had accepted the genes.

Living beings... To call them that is almost an absurdity. They were so different from a kat. So small. So simple. And yet, they were alive. They were alive and had adapted in order to colonize *every* ecological niche on the planet: land, water, air, heat, salinity, acidity, pressure, dryness, other living organisms... They were ubiquitous...

For genetic studies and experiments, there were no better organisms. With only one small chromosome and short life cycles, some of them lasting just a few minutes, they were indeed perfect for genetic experiments. The only thing negative was to never be sure which took up the genes of interest since they were so small. But a simple process of cultivating them in a specific medium would show which of them were the specimens of interest.

He sterilized an inoculation loop and scrubbed it on them. Millions of them were entangled in the loop. He then rubbed the reddish solid medium inside a Petri dish with it. He repeated the procedure with two more dishes and then placed them in the stove, regulating the temperature to 37ºC. After twenty-four hours, he retrieved the Petri dishes from the stove and examined them in the hotte.

He smiled when he saw colonies growing on translucent spots on the previously red medium. Those organisms had fed on the blood in the medium, leaving translucent aureoles behind.

Those were the bacteria that interested him...

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******THE TINY BACTERIA - Part One**

The wind caressed the fur on his cheeks as he soared in the skies above the marshlands. The feeling was breathtaking, thrilling, to be able to fly so high without the aid of machines. Without a word he commandeered his vessel to drop altitude fast and it obeyed, recoiling its wings behind its back and dropping headfirst like a stone. He was lying flat on the back of the creature, tightly pinned to its hide. He saw the swampy marshes below drawing nearer every second. Aiming for a clearing, he ordered the creature to stabilize the fall and dart forward. It once more obeyed and spread out its wings only when it was a few tens of meters above the still swamp water surface, creating a pillow of air underneath its body and wings. Large concentric waves flew away from the center of the clearing and broke against the trunks and foliage of the vegetation as it controlled the free fall it had engaged only a few seconds before.

In one swift motion, its large wings spread to the sides and suddenly shot back, boosting it through the narrow corridor of mangrove trees. It locked its wings behind his back like it had done during the fall in order not to bump against any of the tree trunks and boughs, some of them nearly scraping its wings. For him, the vegetal corridor was nothing more than a blur of green and brown. He suddenly spotted a bright golden light just a few yards ahead of him, the end of the corridor.

Both navigator and creature reached the end of the marshes with astonishing speed. He had to blink twice before he got used to the sudden change of luminosity, after what he ordered his vessel to head up. It obeyed with a harder flap of its wings, so smooth, however, that it was barely noticeable. In a few seconds he suddenly felt the air change, with the humidity level raising to 100% as he penetrated the bright orange bank of clouds in his ascent. Small pearls of water condensed around his furs as the misty atmosphere turn denser around him. He gave another command and his vessel shot upward like an arrow, punching through the fluffy clouds in front of him.

For someone contemplating the sunset above the cloud rooftop of a mountain peak, the dark silhouette that suddenly shot out through the clouds would have seemed like a black serpent snaking its way up, trying to flee from the irresistible pull of gravity, weren't it for the wings on each side of its apparently slender but actually powerful body.

He smiled, pointy sharp teeth glistening in the fading red twilight of the sunset. Overjoyed, he let out a guttural roar of contentment, immediately followed by an even louder and deeper roar, this time, proceeding from his creature.

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An aerial view of Megakat Beach would show not a golden sandy crescent but rather a dark swarm of tanned bodies lying in the sand, profiting from the hot and sunny summer days. Near the waterfront, kittens played and built their sandcastles with the moist sediment while some others played in the calid waters that bathed the overbuilt coastline of Megakat City. In the backshore, just before the orange sandstone cliff, two teams disputed an animated beach volleyball game. In that hot Sunday morning, it seemed that every kat in town decided to go to the beach and, paradoxically, try to relax a little from the bustling urban life.

Away from the coastal aestival frenzy, Chance was lying on the lawn chair on top of the garage's roof soaking up the sun when a sound that was loud enough to be heard at the farthest corner of the Salvage Yard reverberated from inside the house. A sound incredibly odd for those summer days: a sneeze.

"Bless you!" - Chance screamed as he took off his sunglasses and looked inside.

"Thanks..." - the slender form in the bed responded, after what he reached for a tissue to blow his nose. Chance got off from the chair and entered the room.

"How can this be possible? How can you catch a cold in the middle of the summer?" - he taunted Jake, who just gave him a dull glance.

"Doesn't spraying me with water in that chilling night rings any bells to you?" - Jake asked back in a nasal tone as he finished cleaning his nostrils.

"C'mon, don't give me that! In order for you to catch a flu, you must already have the virus inside your system!" - Chance stated.

"Well, with virus or not, I've been like so since that night..." - Jake looked around - "Aren't there anymore vitamin C tablets?"

"No. I'll go buy some more at the chemist." - Chance said as he put on a shirt - "I've got to do some shopping, anyway… I'm off now! You'll be all right on your own?" - the tabby asked from the room's door.

"I'll survive... I think... I feel half-way dead already..." - Jake complained.

"You know, it's amazing... You've fought against the greatest evil creatures ever to set foot on Gaia and defeated them and still, you go down just because of a little flu..."

"You know darn well how I feel when I've got a cold... It's a wiping out disease for me..." - Jake explained - "This is worse than Dark Kat himself..."

"So you've told me... Somehow, I still can't believe it... You know, this really proves that deep down inside you, you're really just a woos..."

"Why, you... Just wait till I'm better! I'll make you bite my dust in that arena!" - Jake snarled.

"In your weirdest dreams, pal..." - Chance mocked and turned around to go, closing the room's door.

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The twenty minutes were nearly over and the new cell wall was practically finished between the newly formed cells, just another two in the middle of millions of genetically identical cells. In one particular cell, the DNA was beginning to self-replicate, only one of the initial steps of the formation of a new living being. The constant 37ºC temperature and the nutrients provided by the growth medium allowed the cells to divide at a constant rate for the past 24 hours, building up small golden colonies on the surface of the purple medium. All of a sudden, the temperature inside the stove was disturbed when someone opened the door and retrieved the five plastic Petri dishes where the bacteria were growing, which were stacked on top of each other and fixed with some adhesive tape.

Golden pupil-less eyes tried to look through the beads of water that had condensed on the inner surface of the Petri dishes. There was little that they could discern, though. The kat brought them to the hotte and there, amid the outward flowing air, he securely opened one of the small rounded plastic boxes. His lips curved upwards in a smile when he beheld the small golden colonies, simple aureate blots on the surface of the solid medium.

"Ssso beautiful... A shame I mussst ssscramble you, my tiny bacteria..."

Viper opened the remaining four Petri dishes and was presented with more golden colonies of bacteria. There were enough bacteria to build up a nice concentration in a liquid growth medium.

"Hmmm... A consssentration of about 4,9 x 109 cells per liter..." - he said after making some calculations - "About the same consssentration found in a sssewer... That's more than enough for my purposessssssss"

The reptilian scientist closed the Petri dishes and went to a built-in case in the wall to his left. He opened and rummaged for what he needed.

"Ahhh, here..." - he retrieved a half-empty large glass flask with a translucent liquid inside, slightly thicker than water - "Darn! I need to go out for peptone... Thisss isn't enough! Now that I'm at it, I'd better get some agar as well... I'm running short of both... Now, let'sss see... Yesss... I'm sure the Microbiology MedLabs have quite a stock of both... That'll be my next ssstop tonight..." - Viper said as he closed the case and headed out of his laboratory. He went to the balcony of his tree house and watched due West, to the setting sun.

"Sssoon I'll ssstrike... And thisss time, it shall be fatal for you, Megakat Sssity... Sssince I can't make you like myself, then there will be *no* Megakat Sssity for anyone! Or should I sssay, there will be *no one* for Megakat Sssity?"

And with that, he let out a dry laugh that cut through the sounds of the swamps.

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"I'm back!" - Chance announced as he crossed the living room towards the kitchen - "Are you still alive?" - he mocked as he tossed the car keys to the cupboard and deposited the paper bags with the groceries on the table. The tabby searched inside one of them and retrieved a small packet.

"Got some candy for you!" - he said as he made the tablets inside the small cardboard box rattle, heading upstairs. He went to their room and opened the door without a sound. Jake's heavy breathing was the only sound hearable. The slim kat was peacefully asleep.

Chance took off the shoes and entered the room, taking care not to wake Jake up. He put the packet with the vitamin C tablets on Jake's nightstand. The tabby softly placed a paw on Jake's forehead.

"He's a bit hot..." - he thought - "It's a good sign. It means his system is fighting back the infection... He's not well but he's not that bad either... He'll get over this. He's a tough fighter. He won't let a simple cold get him down."

Chance sit down on his bed and watched the sleeping visage of his friend - "I remember... I remember a time when I fell sick when kitten... Those had been the worst fevers I've ever had in my life... If it weren't for Pop Perkins, I could very well have passed out... Permanently... But this won't pass with you, buddy... 'Cause I won't let..."

The tabby got off from his bed and walked out of the room. He headed to the hangar in order to have a little practice. He took off his clothes and put on his SWAT Kat outfit, marching on to the reflex room. If he had stayed a bit more in the hangar, he would have heard an Enforcer dispatch being communicated via emergency band, reporting that a silent alarm had been set off from the Microbiology MedLabs, in sector twelve.

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The following day was a warm and bright one again. Megakat Beach was crowded, as though the kats had remained there overnight. However, Megakat City was again a roaring and bustling burg, with kats working and living their busy lives. An aerial view of Megakat City while in its workday's first hours could only be described as endowed with a chaotic beauty. If one looked from high enough, the city would look like a gigantic organism crisscrossed by thousands of lines filled with activity, the very arteries of such a colossal organism.

What was to happen if, in one of those arteries, perhaps one of the main avenues, occurred... an accident?

Rushing to their jobs, a set of three cars crashed in the middle of one of the main crossroads. The other cars approached and stopped, growing the traffic jam caused by the accident. From above, the growing of the traffic jam would quickly start to look like... a tumor... starting to spread through the organism and depriving it from its primal functions...

With the diligent efforts of the Enforcers, the situation returned to normal in just a couple of hours. The organism had been cured and it was functioning perfectly once more.

Ironically, something very similar was about to abate over the oblivious citizens of Megakat City... The only difference was that a cure wouldn't be so readily available...

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The slim kat slowly opened his eyes. It was a hard task since they were burning from the morning light that entered the room. He put a paw on his forehead in order to protect his eyes.

Jake was feeling a bit better but he knew that blessed feeling would soon fade away and give room to another day of excruciating discomfort. He shook his head in a negative, in despondency. He soon regretted having done so for a stinging pain shot through his temples as the continuous rushes of blood inflated the arteries running across both sides of his forehead and forced the fine neural mesh surrounding them, inducing the pain.

He sighed and dared to look outside, to the bright and shiny morning. It was just as odd as it was sad to catch a cold in the middle of the summer, he thought. Jake's cheeks turned a bit redder underneath his fur. He was ashamed for being so weak when it came to flues. It had always been the same since his kittenhood. A cold was as devastating as a stroke of Ebola for Jake. It was almost a paradox that someone so full of energy as he was would be brought to the ground by a simple cold.

"Unlike him... He only seldom got sick and he never stopped because of that... How we could have turned out to be so different is beyond me..." - Jake thought. He rolled on the bed to grab the glass of water on his nightstand. He felt his mouth dry like a desert. 

He slowly sat on the bed. The discomfort had started, as he predicted, just as soon as he began to move. He felt like he'd been beaten half to death, with his muscles sore and hurt. The slightest movement would send waves of pain through his body. Though it wasn't a sharp or a throbbing pain, it was very uncomfortable, nonetheless.

Despite having eaten only a bowl of soup for supper last night, he still wasn't hungry. Colds had that effect on him too. They also made him a tad grouchy. He'd grumble at just about everything. So it was a grumbling Jake that forced himself to get out of the bed and head downstairs in order to have his breakfast.

However, before heading to the kitchen, he went to the bathroom to wash his face. Maybe the cold water would ease up his general discomfort a little. He half-walked, half-tottered towards the sink, where he placed his paws for support. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and nearly jumped startled. His eyes were bloodshot and dull, his nostrils were swollen and his facial fur was a doughy mess. He washed his face dilatorily, enjoying the refreshing contact with the cold fluid.

He looked once again to his reflection in the mirror. His looks were even worse now that his facial fur was moist and hanging from his skull. At least he was feeling a bit better but he knew that the feeling wouldn't last long. He left the bathroom and headed for the kitchen to take that so undesirable breakfast.

Chance was in the garage. All that could be seen of the tabby were his legs and his tail lashing the air as he was buried under the hood of a car. His hears flicked when he heard the weight of a body making the steps of the stairs crack a bit.

"'Morning, bud!" - the tabby greeted his friend from where he stood. Jake greeted Chance back. Chance got off the car and swept the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve as he headed for the kitchen. He watched as Jake poured some orange juice in a tall glass.

"Now that's what I call a complete breakfast..." - Chance teased, though there was some truth and concern in his words.

"Back off, Chance..." - Jake answered in a dull tone.

"C'mon, Jake! You gotta think positive about this whole thing!" - said the tabby, placing an arm over Jake's shoulders.

"Hum, don't..." - Jake said as he dodged Chance's embrace - "You should stay away from me or you'll catch my cold..." - the slim kat said with a worried look on his face. Chance smiled. Even ill, Jake was still worried about his health condition. What a friend...

"You're probably right..." - Chance acquiesced - "You sure you're not hungry?"

"I am, Chance, thanks... This juice is everything I'm gonna need..."

"Okay, then..." - the tabby sighed and headed for the garage after patting Jake twice on the back.

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The nutrients dispersed at different rates in the liquid. Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur... Everything a body needs to grow well. That combined with an optimal temperature would accelerate the growth rate to its peak. Indeed, the microorganisms amid the viscous fluid inside the two five-liter Erlenmeyers were actively busy doing what they do best... Multiplying... And multiplying until every resource is exhausted and nothing more than the excretion products are all that's left.

But Viper wouldn't allow the excretion products to rise until they reached a toxic level for the microorganisms. No. He was doing a continuous culture, so the bacteria were constantly being extracted as new fresh medium was continuously added to the two Erlenmeyers. That way, the cells' division rate was constantly at its peak, granting the production of maximum quantities of bacteria.

"Yesss..." - the reptilian scientist said, with a pleasant grin on his snout - "Keep growing, my tiny bacteria... Sssoon I'll have jussst enough to commence the nexssst step of my grand massster plan... Megakat Sssity will fall to itsss knees before me..."

The mutated kat let out a dry roar of laughter and headed out of the growth room. He went to his lab bench and peered at the plastic box on top of it, beside a stereomicroscope. Inside the box was a living swarm of insects. He opened the box and rapidly collected one of the tiny bugs with the help of a pair of tweezers. He placed it under the light of the stereomicroscope and regulated the apparatus. Against the black side of the stage he saw the magnified tip of the tweezers and the insect they were grappling. He smiled as he saw the small animal furiously arch its abdomen under its body and spray some tiny jets of a superheated translucent fluid.

"A very interesssting ssspecimen of the genus _Formica, if I may sssay ssso... Now, to isolate the genes that cause sssuch an interesssting trait..." - he sibilated as he placed the distressed ant back inside the box._

Heading for a medium-sized machine connected to the Cray-XMP supercomputer, he tore the sheet of translucent paper that had spurted off the machine. He looked at it holding it high against a white-lit screen. The paper had a few small dark horizontal bars. The paper alone didn't tell him much. The cultures he had made with fragments of the ants' chromosomes obtained from electrophoretic splicing would indeed tell him which chromosome and which part of the DNA produced the superheated formic acid the ants sprayed whenever they were attacked. Viper suspected that such a process of overheating would require enzymes to be done, and, being proteins, the enzymes had to be encoded into the DNA of a gene in one of the ants' chromosomes. The process was so elegant and elaborate that instead of a single gene, the reptilian scientist expected to find an operon, a set of genes located in neighbor segments of DNA that had a particular function and acted as a whole.

Viper looked at the stove where the Petri dishes with the cultures were. It was too soon to know for sure, but as soon as he found out where the particular operon was located, it was just a matter of cloning the gene and inserting it into the target organism's genome. However, that was still to happen. Meanwhile, he had to make another pick-up for his studies. He needed a special member of the _Trachelidae family, the blistering-fly, also known by the scientific name of __Cantharida sp. ..._

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Much for his surprise, Jake managed to be hungry enough to eat lunch and roam around the garage in the afternoon. He was indeed starting to feel better.

"Whaddyaknow..." - he thought - "Looks like this cold was only a minor one... Even my general discomfort is attenuated... I wonder to what do I owe this fast recovery... To all the vitamin C I took?"

The slim kat looked towards the kitchen. He saw Chance inside, busy with pots and pans. Jake was resting in the sofa and watching the news. Despite having felt better the afternoon, he decided he shouldn't try to work so soon, so he just roamed around the garage and the Salvage Yard. Again, a wave of embarrassment subdued him.

"C'mon, it's just a silly cold!" - he thought to himself - "Damn it, why can't I take a simple cold? I can take pain, more than most kats can, I can control my emotions perfectly, I'm in perfect control of myself at the most extreme situations... and yet, I fall before a simple cold! Imagine if I had a *real* disease! I'd probably die the moment it was diagnosed!"

Again, Jake stared at his brawny partner in the kitchen and closed his eyes, releasing a short sigh.

"Some times I envy your strength, Chance... You wouldn't be so abated because of a simple cold... I wish I had your strength when it comes to face illness..."

"Dinner's ready!" - Chance stated, shattering Jake's thoughts. The slim kat looked at Chance and couldn't help but smile. Chance was wearing that ridiculous 'Kiss the Cook' apron... - "You're hungry enough to eat dinner, I hope! I made cheeseburgers..."

"I don't think my stomach can take another attack of your cooking... But I'll give it a try anyway..." - Jake taunted as he got off the couch. In doing so a light dizziness took over him and forced him to stop for a second.

"This is a sign that I'm not completely out of the bushes yet..." - the slim kat thought.

However the dizziness soon faded away. The dinner went well and Jake ate everything that was in the dish in front of him. Chance took that as a positive sign that his friend's illness was finally going away. The tabby took the plates to the kitchen sink after they both have finished.

"Want any help with that?" - Jake asked. Chance said it would be better for Jake not to abuse of his condition, since it was obvious he wasn't cured yet: during dinner, Jake had sneezed twice. The slim kat acknowledged with a nod of his head and then went for the living room to watch some sit-com. Chance joined him a quarter of an hour later.

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Dave Weiss yawned indolently as he sat back on his chair inside the guard cabinet situated in a room near the entrance of the Manx Zoological Research Center. Night watching was so *boring*! Nothing ever happened. He was already sorry for having had quit the job he had at the city's Oceanarium. Though he was underpaid there, at least he could do what he liked. He was charged of feeding the dolphins and he really liked the animals very much. Truth was that both the animals and he liked each other.

But he needed more money. Now that he'd made his wife pregnant and she couldn't carry on her job as a dancer, he'd have to earn more money to pay for the pregnancy expenses and to nurture the incoming baby. So he quit his job and came to work as a night guard for the Zoological Research Center. Under other circumstances he wouldn't have applied for this kind of job but, as he needed the money desperately, he accepted. The only good thing was the salary: it was the double of what he earned at the Oceanarium.

But it was so darn *boring*! In the Oceanarium he had a lot more to do but at least he *liked* what he was doing. He liked the animals and the animals liked him. Besides, he always managed to get a perfect year-round tan whereas other kats were only tanned in the summer. He smiled at his last thought. The light brown-furred tom yawned and stretched, closing his eyes for just a moment. When he opened them he thought he saw an evanescent shadow by the wall across the entrance. He squinted through the glassed walls of his cabinet but didn't see it anymore.

Pressed on by his duty's rules and, most of all, eager for some action, he grabbed the flashlight and opened the door of the cabinet to get out. Turning on the flashlight, he scooped the large room in front of him. He saw nothing. He pondered about the possibilities of some burglar getting inside the building. They were very low. Besides, what would a burglar want with the Center? He didn't really know what the scientists at the Center did but it didn't take a rocket scientist to understand they should study more than just zoological behavior. That's why they paid so well to have a night guard.

He looked at the visitors' hall, the room where the visitors of the Center entered. The room was dominated by an eerie bluish light coming from the aquariums where some tropical fish swam, ready to greet the visitors. The beam of light swooped from side to side but there was nothing at sight. Dave considered his chances on a mano a mano. He was a well-constituted tom. He had to be in order to work with the dolphins at the Oceanarium. Though the animals were docile, they were much bigger and heavier than him and some procedures required him to raise the animals recurring to bare arm strength. The water helped a bit but, nonetheless, the animals weighted a few hundred kilos... He thought he wouldn't have much trouble in a fight.

Dave returned to his cabinet, convinced that it was just a trick sleep was playing on him. In fact, he still found extremely hard to stay awake all night long. He was pretty sure this was all the work of a mind fogged by sleepiness.

Suddenly, too suddenly to make any sense, Dave felt that he couldn't breathe properly. He soaked up a large quantity of air, hoping that it would fill his lungs. Surprise and shock filled his face when it didn't. He finally understood what was happening to him. Quickly, he threw his paws to his neck and found something scaly wrapped around it, tightening its grip around his neck. Dave fought against his aggressor for a long time but, in the end, the lack of air had its consequences. His arms fell limply, almost immediately followed by his body, hanging limply from the death trap snuggled around his neck.

Tightly pinned to the wall beside the cabinet's door with his large claws, Dr. Viper loosened the grip of his tail around the young guard's neck. The nerve endings in his tail told him he was dead. The carotids had stopped pulsating, which indicated he'd held the guard long enough for his heart to stop. He jumped off the wall and confidently crossed the visitors' hall, penetrating into a corridor with several doors that gave passage to different exhibition rooms. Viper headed for the laboratories, following the corridor to his left.

He reached a closed wooden door marked with a stenciled sign saying "Authorized Personnel Only". He tried the doorknob. Locked. Giving out a small sigh of irritation, Viper fully unsheathed right paw claws and forced them through a small crack on the doorknob side. When his claws were inside, he gave out a roar and pulled the paw down to his left, shattering the wood and throwing the door off its hinges. The reptilian scientist panted for a moment and then entered the room.

The laboratories occupied the entire west wing of the Zoological Research Center. In fact, there were a series of laboratories where the most various experiments were done, since Behavioral Zoology and Ecological Studies to Applied Genetics and Biochemistry. At the beginning, Viper felt a bit lost. He had planned to rob the Research Center but now that he was there, he had to admit that he didn't know the place as well as he knew the Biochemical Labs. He shrugged. With the guard knocked out he'd have plenty of time to roam around all the laboratories.

He tried to remember the article he read from one of the recent editions of the "Megakat Journal of Science" he stole during his last visit to the Biochemical Labs. There it was said that blistering-flies were being used to find a drug that, combined with others, would have significant results in the treatment of certain forms of tumors. He couldn't be less interested in such a research. Using cantharidine, the active principle of the _Cantharida's venomous hemolymph, as a medicine was the stupidest thing he ever heard._

"Tumorssss are genetic aberrationssss caused when a cell losessss control over itssss replication cycle... The cantharidine mussst be extracted from the insectsss rather than produced _in vitro... That narrows my search down to the laboratories of Applied Geneticssss and Biochemisssstry..." - the green kat thought. He headed first for the Biochemistry laboratory, which was situated near the end of the long corridor. Here too the door was closed but when he tried it, he found it unlocked._

"To think about all the lecturesss we received whenever we left a lab door unlocked at the Biolabssss..." - Viper thought. He entered the room and immediately was greeted with the familiar sight of a modern and well-equipped laboratory, with white walls, black floor and white lab benches. On top of the benches were a panoply of lab material, from microscopes to supports filled with test tubes. Some of the benches had a plastic bag half-filled with Falcon tubes, plastic test tubes used whenever glass wasn't allowed to be used in the experiments. Near the walls there were centrifuges, spectrophotometers, stoves, freezers and reagent lockers. He rummaged through the benches until he found a plastic box with some black-colored insects inside. As soon as he touched the box, the insects started spraying a yellowish liquid through an opening at the end of their abdomen. Viper smiled. Blistering-flies. Tucking the box under his left arm, he prepared to leave the Research Center.

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Minutes after having fallen to the ground limply, Dave Weiss slowly opened his eyes. His mind was numb and he momentarily couldn't remember what was he doing on the floor. It took him several minutes to recollect his memories and sort them out. He'd been attacked. He thanked for his apnea lessons. They probably just saved his life. Fighting off the panic of being strangled, he tried to control himself and started to concentrate as when he did apnea diving with the dolphins at the Oceanarium. With his concentration technique, he was able to reduce his heartbeat to a minimum of one pulse per minute. Anyone who would measure his pulse would probably think he'd be dead.

Still with a foggy mind, he headed for the console and pressed the silent alarm. He knew the Enforcers would be there in just a few minutes. He pondered whether he should try to stop the thief or just wait for the authorities to arrive. He decided he'd have his revenge.

"No one brings 'Big' Dave down without a rematch!" - he thought as he walked out of his cabinet.

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When Sergeant Owen was assigned to the early night shift aboard chopper eight, he hoped for a calm and uninteresting night. And, he was having a calm shift. It was almost midnight and all he could think about was on his bed, waiting for him. Everything he *didn't* need was that call sending him check a silent alarm in sector five, at the Manx Zoological Research Center. What kind of weirdo would break into a research center in the middle of the night and nearly in the end of his shift? Owen almost felt tempted to wait ten more minutes until the end of his shift but he then thought about what would happen in case Commander Feral found out about it. He decided to go check up on the Research Center, changing course to sector five and heading there very slowly...

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"Don't you think it's time for you to go to sleep already?" - Chance asked Jake - "It's almost midnight."

Jake and Chance were watching the Litterbin show, or better, Jake was watching the show while Chance was getting bored to death. Jake didn't feel sleepy until Chance had mentioned the time. He yawned.

"I guess you're right..." - Jake responded. It wasn't convenient for him to force his system too much while it was recovering from the flu. He was about to get off the couch when they heard the Enforcer dispatch stating the silent alarm on the Manx Zoological Research Center.

"A zoological research center? What kind of a nutcracker would rob a zoological research center?" - Chance asked to himself. Words weren't spoken and he already had the answer for his question.

"Viper." - both toms said simultaneously.

They jumped out of the couch and headed for the hangar. Chance reached their lockers first. He'd already started putting on his G-suit when Jake finally reached his locker.

"Hey, buddy. You sure you wanna come?"

"I'm not sitting this one out, if that's what you mean. Flu or no flu, Viper's dangerous. You need backup." - the slim kat said as he pulled the G-suit's trousers up.

"Actually, I was thinking *you* could need backup on this one..."

"Don't worry about me. It's not this cold that's gonna keep me away from my SWAT Kat duties!" - Jake exclaimed with a determinate look on his face. Chance was surprised. He knew how colds knocked his friend down. So it was a surprise to see him so determinate.

"I just hope everything goes right..." - the tabby thought, tying his bandanna behind his head and reaching for his helmet after having done so. Before heading to the jet, Razor sneezed. They finally settled on their respective places inside the jet fighter and darted down the underground runway.

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"Impertinent fool!" - Viper hissed as he released the blood-covered body of the Research Center guard. The stupid tom had tried to attack him in the Biochemistry lab. For a moment, the guard managed to overpower him, throwing him against one of the reagents' lockers. The locker wasn't well closed and the knock of his body against it opened one of the doors and made a flask of nitric acid spill over his shoulder, burning the lab coat and his skin. He'd gotten so furious with the rush of pain he'd wrapped his tail around the guard's neck and lunged to him with his claws fully unsheathed. 

The strike hit the young tom in the left side of his gut and penetrated deeply inside. He saw the young tom's eyes widening as his arm wormed deeply inside the guard's bowels. With a roar, he pulled his arm out of the night guard while tugging at his transverse colon, eviscerating the young tom, who gave out a loud cry of pain.

Now the guard was down on his knees, unbelievingly touching the warm and humid mass lying in the ground in front of him. Hyperventilating and whimpering, he didn't want to believe that what appeared to be a large viscous snake was in fact his intestine.

Viper took the plastic box with the insects and tucked it inside his lab coat, under the blood-covered red right arm. Before he went out of the lab, however, there was something else he had to do. He knew the guard wouldn't go anywhere in that condition but he didn't have any doubts that he could scream once the shock passed. Even though he was deep inside the Research Center, someone could hear his screams when the agony of death took over him. He decided to put the guard out of his misery. Just before the young tom gave voice to another scream, a light cracking sound coming from his neck ended everything…

Having wrapped up all loose ends, Viper finally prepared to leave the Manx Zoological Research Center. He was fuming. Things had gotten the wrong way ever since the beginning when he had had to knock out the guard. Now he had been forced to kill the young tom, leaving a gruesome scene behind and certainly an Enforcer investigation. Viper wanted to make sure he didn't leave any clue behind for the Enforcers to follow but the simple squishing sound that his feet made on the linoleum of the floor told him he was leaving a trail of red footprints behind. Besides that, the young tom's blood on his right arm was surely dripping and leaving a trail as well. To top it all off, it was quite dark, so he had to concentrate his full attention on his escape. There wasn't enough light to confirm his suspicions about the red trails he was leaving behind and he surely wouldn't turn on the lights of the complex. Viper was about to enter the visitors hall when he heard something that made him freeze dead on his tracks.

A sneeze.

The reptilian scientist pricked his years and tried to listen but he didn't hear anything else. Instead, he looked to the linoleum directly ahead of him, illuminated by the bluish light of the aquariums. He saw two shadows coming in with furtive movements. He saw that one shadow was burlier than the other was and that they had split up in the meantime. He saw the shadows had an arm out, as if they had some sort of weapon on his paws.

That was all he needed right now... Those *meddling* SWAT Kats...

"Wretched guard! He mussst have ssset off the alarm!" - Viper thought, jerking his head from one side to the other, nearly in panic - "I can't be caught now! Not now! It'sss too early!"

He pondered his chances. They weren't much. He thought about running into the visitors' hall and then fleeing through the same place he'd gotten in but he put that idea apart just as he had it. Chances were high that the SWAT Kats used the same entrance. Besides, could he be fast enough to run by them? He looked to the glass-fitted doors in front of him. The doors were like those found at the entrance of a supermarket, opening automatically when someone tripped the detection beam. There were four doors spaced twenty meters from one another. There was only one door at his left. The remaining three were on the other side of the entrance. He thought the doors wouldn't obviously open out of the service hours. The doors were all electronically locked and the glass was a strong one, he was sure of that. Even so, he decided that that was his best escape route.

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T-Bone moved cautiously now that Razor had sneezed. His heart almost dropped to his feet when his friend had his nasal outburst. Glovatrix ready in his right arm, he headed for the entrance. He could vaguely distinguish the form of a glass gliding door at the other side of the arch that separated the hall where he stood now and the rest of the complex. He was about to signal something to Razor when he heard an immense racket of broken glass. Whoever broke into the Research Center, was now on the run.

Both him and Razor precipitated to the arch. They saw that, to their left, a door some twenty meters away from the entrance was shattered to pieces. The big tabby ran to the broken entrance, immediately followed by his slim partner, who stationed at the opposite side of the shattered door. T-Bone looked to the shards of glass on the floor and sighed.

"Why the heck do we have to do this bare-footed?" - he mentally questioned himself in a rhetorical fashion. Razor made a face, acknowledging the same feeling. Nodding to each other, both SWAT Kats jumped inside the large dark room, trying to avoid stepping onto the glass shards, intent that only partially was managed. They winced when a few shards cut the soles of their feet.

The room was warm and completely in the arms of darkness. They couldn't see a palm up their snouts. As if mentally connected, both vigilantes turned on their helmets' lights almost simultaneously. The beams of light cut through the blackness and revealed a long room, with at least twice the size of its width. In the middle there was a central corridor some ten meters wide. Along the corridor there were some glassed pillars separated five meters from each other. Inside the pillars could be seen green vegetation. From time to time, there were large windows on the sides of the room. Between the windows stood stuffed animals and other artifacts.

Razor turned his beam towards one of the windows and peered inside. Just like inside the pillars, there was a dense vegetation beyond the windowpane. Then he saw it, on a fallen tree trunk. A yellow piton moved lazily across the dark trunk, obviously disturbed by the helmet's light. Razor realized that those weren't just simple windows but, in fact, cages.

On the other side, T-Bone looked through one of the cages situated on the side opposite to that where Razor was. He also saw the same vegetation as in the pillars but, unlike those, this cage had a sort of a small pool. He lurked inside, getting so close to the glass his breath was fogging it. Suddenly, a gray-bluish head, as large as his own, emerged from the water and tried to bite him. The tabby stepped back, startled, and almost fell over his tail. He looked into the expressionless gray eyes of the snake. It was an anaconda, and an adult, judging by its size. T-Bone shivered. If it weren't for the glass, he'd be wrapped around the anaconda's powerful embrace, suffocating to death. He remembered his last experience with MadKat, not yet a month ago.

"This must be the reptiles' exhibit..." - T-Bone whispered - "What a perfect place for a scum snake to hide out."

"Roger that..." - Razor acknowledged in a whisper as he returned to the corridor. A few moments later, T-Bone was also in it. - "I suggest a methodic search. You check the right and I'll check the left."

"Understood." - was T-Bone's only reply. They separated again and, with their lights, they searched the room.

The large tabby had walked half the length of the room when he suddenly heard a low hissing and something that seemed like a rattle. - "Huh? Viper?" - he thought, turning immediately his light towards the origin of the sound. The beam of light fell on a cage with a large rattlesnake inside. It was the reptile that was making the noise. T-Bone's shoulders dropped in relief. - "No... Just one of his cousins..." - he thought before continuing his search.

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His eyes weren't yet accustomed to the stronger obscurity and he already knew he was inside the reptiles' exhibit room. The odor was very weak due to the animals being enclosed inside glass cages but he would recognize the smell of other reptiles a mile away. He felt tempted to let them loose, so that they'd hunt down the SWAT Kats. He was still cogitating on this when he saw a shadow cross the shattered door. The SWAT Kats were there already! There wasn't much time to find a good hideout! Desperately, the reptilian kat flexed his legs and jumped high against the wall to his right and climbed it up.

From his advantageous standpoint, he saw the two SWAT Kats penetrating the room and turning on their helmets' lights. He remained in silence as the two toms below him spread out from the central corridor. The burlier one was right underneath him. He thought that he could snipe him and even destroy him. But he'd lose the box with the insects if he did so. He considered his options. The insects were too precious to be wasted away...

He crawled towards the door, taking advantage of the darkness and of the fact that the SWAT Kat seemed to be interested in whatever reptile was enclosed in the cage underneath him. He moved cautiously, pondering each move. He suddenly couldn't get a good grip with his claws on the wall and had to shift his position. In doing so, the box with the insects dropped from his lab coat. Out of sheer desperation, he threw his tail towards the box, wrapping the plastic receptacle with it. If he were alone, he would have released an audible sigh of relief. The box was save... for now...

He shifted his position again and this time he managed to get a stable grip. He looked down and saw the burly SWAT Kat staggering back, as if something had startled him. He waited until the two toms penetrated further into the long room before he risked moving again. He went to the entrance and started climbing down the wall over it. In a few more seconds of crawling down, he reached the opening and crawled outside the reptiles' exhibit hall.

Finally, he was in the corridor and quickly ran towards the visitors' hall, still illuminated by the soft bluish light radiating from the aquariums. At the soft light he peered at his right arm, touching it. He feared that he could be dripping blood over the SWAT Kat, thus giving away his position. He saw that his worries were baseless. His scales were dry and his arm was black at the bluish light. The blood had already clotted. Satisfied for finally getting out of that place, he once more tucked the plastic box with the blistering-flies inside his lab coat and exited via the same way he got in. Once in the street, he lurked from one side to the other. He smiled, satisfied that there wasn't anyone in the street. The reptilian scientist headed for a kathole, opened it and dived inside, closing the lid just in time to hear the noise of a chopper approaching.

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Razor inspected carefully every possible niche where a kat could hide. There weren't much hideouts in the exhibit room, though it was a long division. He rapidly reached the end of the room and released a frustrated soft sigh. He expected that whoever broke into the Research Center would be here. Now it was obvious that they'd been led away from the intruder.

"Of course... It's so obvious now... Viper must be miles away from here now." - he thought. The light beam swept the walls and ceiling in one last vain attempt of search. He saw his burly partner coming to him, shaking his head slightly in a negative. He knew instantly he hadn't found anything as well.

"Whoever forced his way inside..." - T-Bone said in a whisper when he got to Razor - "... must be far away by now. We've been led, buddy..."

"So I've noticed..." - Razor said with a short sigh. Suddenly, his ears pricked. He saw T-Bone's hears moving too.

"That's our cue outta here! The cavalry's arriving!" - T-Bone said and they ran out of the reptiles' exhibit, jumping over the shattered door and heading out the same way Viper had.

Once outside the Zoological Research Center, they ran to the nearest alley. Fortunately, the chopper's pilot was too busy landing to notice the couple of vigilantes scurrying away from the facade of the Research Center. Making their way up to the neighboring dwelling edification resorting to their glovatrixes' grappling hooks, they covered the distance that separated them from the TurboKat, which they'd landed on the flat rooftop of an apartment building a block away from the Research Center.

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The morning came soon enough the next day. Chance woke up with the rays of sun hitting him square on the face. He yawned, cursing under his breath for being forced to get up so soon. In fact, it wasn't even eight o'clock. He sat on the bed and stretched, making the bones of his arms and back pop while he indolently let out another silent yawn. He got up and looked at the bed beside his.

Jake was still buried under the sheets, despite the sunlight hitting the bed. He went to him, intending to wake the slim kat up. When he reached his slimmer friend, he perceived the beads of perspiration on Jake's forehead. Immediately taken by a protective instinct, the tabby placed his paw on Jake's forehead. The slim kat was feverish.

Chance cursed himself for having let Jake follow him last night. It was obvious that Jake wasn't still cured of his cold and he so *damn* knew how that disease always made Jake hit the bottom of the pit. A cold wasn't a serious matter but it could become one if the illness wasn't properly cured. Recidives were always a bad thing. He decided to let Jake sleep for a while longer.

Heading for the window that allowed the sunlight to frame his friend's covered body, he closed the green curtains. A sickly greenish tone lay down on Jake's bed. At that light, Jake seemed even more ill than he actually was and Chance had the impression his friend was about to die. He tried to get that thought away from his mind with a shake of his head, in a negative. Instead, he decided to do something productive, like taking a bath, having breakfast and opening the garage.

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His mind didn't want to let him rest. Not now that he was so close. The insects were there, ready to have their genome analyzed, ready to have the gene for their poisonous hemolymph retrieved. Success was just a step away! There wasn't a minute to spare thinking of rest!

However, his body had other ideas. The insects were there and they were secure. No one would take them away. He could dive into the fastidious task of analyzing their genome a few hours later, after some well deserved rest. In effect, Viper had been working nearly non-stop for the last three months. Even him needed rest. However, it wasn't just the physical fatigue that took its toll on the reptilian scientist. Most of all, last night's events were psychologically destructive.

Everything had gone the wrong way. He had wanted a clean operation. Just get in, get the bugs and get out. No struggling, no force, no blood. But *no*! That *stupid* night guard just *had* to make himself useful. Viper took off the lab coat and inspected his shoulder. There was still a wound there, where the nitric acid had hit him. Weren't it for his healing abilities, he'd been scarred for life. He looked at his dark red right arm and shook his head in a negative. It would take *heck* to clean the blood from his scales... *Damn* night guard... Though... He couldn't deny it felt *so* great to disembowel that stupid little bastard... There was a primitive bestial feeling of victory, a kind of exhilaration that tasted so good whenever he did those things... Like when he ate that accursed creepling that so much pain had brought upon him... He was pretty sure his primitive bestial side had overrun him during those moments.

The problem was that whenever the bestial side of his personality surfaced up, it always left a mess behind him. He could well imagine the commotion on the Research Center when they find the disemboweled body. Well, the wrong was done. There was nothing else to do. Nothing else but sleep for a few hours...

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Razor woke up soaked in sweat. The morning had advanced and the heat inside the room, under the sheets, had become unbearable. He threw the sheet away from him and immediately a shiver ran through all his body, making him sneeze a few moments later. He covered himself with the sheet again and placed the back of his paw against his forehead. The fever burned in his paw. The slim kat shook his head, disappointed at himself.

"I should have known better... The night was chilly and I wasn't cured yet... I know just how devilish these microbes can get when they infect me... I should have heeded Chance's warning and stayed in bed... After all, we came home empty-handed... I just got worse for nothing..." - A sneeze cut off the slim kat's thoughts for a few moments - "Ooooh, my head... I really should have stayed in bed yesterday..."

And, with these thoughts, Jake leaned back and sank in his bed, covering himself over with the sheet until his chest.

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The solar orb was already high on the sky when the reptilian scientist woke up. He stretched and slowly crept outside the vine-made cot. He headed out to his balcony to soak up some sun before he returned to work. He didn't really need to warm up at the sun like his reptilian cousins had but he liked it, anyway. Maybe it was just his reptilian side claiming over his rational mind again but, fact is, it felt great!

After a few minutes he decided to return to his lab and eat something. That done, he finally decided to get some work done. He first peered rapidly at the plastic box with the blistering-flies. He saw the insects were still disturbed due to all the action of last night. They were spraying their venomous hemolymph over each other. Viper didn't attribute much importance to the matter. He needed the bugs, which didn't mean that he needed them in perfect physical conditions. He just would have to extract some cells and digest the nucleic material retrieved from those cells with some restriction enzymes before running an electrophoresis to separate the pieces, which would be, then, cultivated in special mediums, like he did with the genomic fragments of the ants.

He left the bugs alone and went for the stove where the fragments of ant DNA were left. He retrieved the Petri dishes from the stove and put them inside the hotte, leaving them there to cool down a bit. That done, he went for the other room where he left the bacteria growing. Just as he opened the door, he felt the drastic change in the temperature, with a gust of a 37ºC-warm air hitting his features. He quickly entered the room and closed the door behind him, so as to disturb the bacteria the least possible. He headed for the apparatus that was slowly purifying the genetically modified bacteria and peered at the recipient recollecting the newly formed prokaryotes. He smiled, thrilled with what he was seeing.

"Judging by the turbidity of the sssolution, they are really growing *very* well!" - he sibilated - "More rapidly than I sssuposed... At this rate, I essstimate that it will take me no more than three daysss to have the amount I require!"

Satisfied with such a good result, Viper adjusted the flasks dispensing fresh medium filling them up aseptically and left the room, opening the door, getting out and closing it as fast as he could, again to disturb the bacteria the least possible.

He went for the hotte, intending to work on the fragments of ant DNA he'd cultivated. He still had to run a battery of tests to find out the fragments of interest. He sibilated.

"Let'sss get down to businesssssss..."

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The days passed, warm, idle and without history. After spending three days suffering from a somewhat severe relapse of his illness, Jake was starting to feel better. At least he could accompany Chance in the arena again. Though he was still a bit weak, he managed to hit Chance a number of times, powerfully, proving that the slim kat's will power was indeed great.

Chance was almost overjoyed to see his friend get up from the mat and jumping upon him, hitting the tabby square on his gut. Not even the pain he felt took off that smile from his snout, as if he had a masochist pleasure in being hit. But it wasn't it. It was just that he had seen Jake very ill not much time ago, a vision he disliked *very* much, and now, he was seeing his friend getting himself up and leaving the disease behind him. It gave him real pleasure feeling his friend's hits hurting him, for it was a true sign that he was recovering fast.

In his living laboratory, in Megakat Swamps, Doctor Viper decided to go check on his bacteria. He entered the warm room and headed for the continuous culture apparatus he installed in there. He examined the large Erlenmeyer in which the purified bacteria were being recollected and smiled. Sure that a few millions of bacteria had, in the meantime, died and that the flask was overpopulated with bacteria, which contributed to increase the death rate, but the turbidity of the liquid inside the Erlenmeyer told him that billions more were still alive and metabolically active. He disconnected the apparatus and took the Erlenmeyer with him when he went out of the room. He took the vial to his laboratory's bench and stared at the turbid yellowish liquid inside.

He shivered, if of exhilaration or fear for what was inside the vial he couldn't tell. Maybe, in his scientific mind, he was afraid of what the content of that vial could do. With the modifications he made to those bacteria's genome, he knew *exactly* what kind of mortal horror he was about to unleash upon the unaware citizens of Megakat City. He imagined the consequences of it. The images that occurred to his mind weren't at all pleasant and he shivered again.

"All the better to manage my intentsss... With the terror I'm about to set loose on this town, no one, not the Enforcersss, not even the SWAT Katsss can do *anything* to ssstop me... You..." - he caressed the glass wall of the Erlenmeyer - "You, my little bacteria, will be the instrumentsss of my wrath... You are a masssterpiece of genetic engineering! Widessspread, highly infectiousss and resissstant to *any* antibioticsss, you will be a plague like none other seen in Hissstory... The only way to contain the spread of the infection will be by quarantining the entire city..." - he chuckled dryly - "Which is almossst an impossssibility..." - his chuckle gave way to a roar of laughter, which ended in a loud hiss.

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Steve Harding was sitting at the desk of the night watcher cabinet of the Megakat Water Company's reservoir located in a hill hanging over the fanciest district of Megakat City, where the majority of the city's VIP's lived, along with a few important businesskats and the burg's mayor. He turned the page of the "Playtom" magazine and unfolded the central pages, getting the magazine a bit away from his eyes so as to better admire that month's playkitty, which, accordingly, was posing against a paradisiacal tropical beach with white sands and the lightest blue waters Steve had ever seen in his life. He sighed. What he wouldn't give to be alone with that monument in that beach.

Peering rapidly at his watch, he saw that his partner sure was taking his time getting those doughnuts. His partner, Christopher Travis was a slim tom about the same height of Steve. What Chris lacked in muscle mass, Steve lacked in agility. In fact, Steve was proud of the inverted triangle shape of his torso, which had taken him many, many hours at the gym. Despite being physically not as developed as Steve, Chris was quite an energetic tom. Both toms were friends since their first year in high school. Whereas Steve was the football star of the team, Chris was the basketball equivalent.

During their senior year, they vowed an oath that they wouldn't leave each other ever. And so it had been for the past year. Chris had informed about the night watch job at the reservoir and asked if Steve would be interested, since they required a pair of guards. Reluctant to give up his party nights, Steve agreed. Soon enough he understood the responsibility that came with his post. Even more surprisingly, he started enjoying that job.

But right now he had other things to worry about. Like, where the heck was Chris? Closing the "Playtom" magazine, he got off from the chair and stretched, flexing his back muscles and making his vertebrae pop. He didn't want to admit it but he was getting worried.

"Now, now, Stevie..." - he thought to himself - "Let's not be hasty... After all, he's only away for... twenty minutes. It's a bit of a stretch from here to the nearest store, even taking the jeep..."

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a noise coming from the entrance. He couldn't well discern what it actually was but it seemed like the door closing. Steve thought that Chris had let the door slam. He stepped out of the cabinet and called for his friend. No answer came to his ears. He thought that was odd. Chris should have hit him back. He walked back inside the cabinet and went for the flashlight. Before he could reach it, he heard a low hissing behind him, as though a large snake were behind his back. He turned rapidly, reaching for the blaster on his holster but everything he saw was something colored in green rush to him and strike him square on his face, sending him flying through the air.

In his flight, Steve felt many things hitting his back. He realized he was making a lot of noise but even louder was the shattering sound he heard. Out of nowhere, as if in slow motion, he saw a shower of twinkling pieces abating over his chest. Suddenly, a big transparent piece hit him square in the chest and he saw a red spurt coming out from the place where the shard hit him. The next thing he saw was a red liquid pouring over his eyes, turning his vision red for a few seconds before the burning feeling stroke him, forcing him to close his eyes. He opened them again but the red filter was still in his eyes. The next color he saw, however, was black when his head was hit by a big shard of glass that surpassed the bone barrier and riveted deeply in his brain's frontal lobe.

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Getting in was easier than he thought. He just couldn't know was that the door would escape his paw and slam. Viper cursed himself. That wasn't supposed to happen. Neither it was supposed that the night guard would get out of his cabinet. He had to put an end to that right away, before the disaster that happened at the Zoological Research Center would repeat. So he went after the night guard and sneaked his way inside the cabinet. However, with the exhilaration of the hunt, his breath came out in somewhat audible hisses. When the guard unexpectedly turned around, he was caught by surprise and merely reacted instead of thinking. He'd slammed his tail against the guard with such a force that the poor tom was sent flying against the desk, knocking against it and turning it over. The hit was so strong that the tom still had enough momentum to hit the glass protection that separated the cabinet from the entrance, shattering it to a thousand pieces. Two huge shards of glass had riveted in the young tom's body, one in his chest and the other in his forehead, killing him immediately, Viper assumed. Still, he had to be sure this time. He went to the guard's limp body and checked his pulse. There still was a very weak pulse but the young tom was most certainly dead. At least he wouldn't go anywhere in those conditions.

He left the cabinet and headed towards the flights of stairs that led to the top of the water reservoir. He noticed that the huge motorized pumps in the base of the building were quiet, which meant that the reservoir was full of water. That didn't sooth him well, since it meant that his bacteria would be diluted amid millions of liters of water. While he climbed up the flights of stairs, he realized that it didn't really matter if the reservoir was full. Of course that there was a better chance of infection if the water level was low but even with the reservoir full, the bacteria were there and even if just a single prokaryote entered a victim's system, that would be enough to seal that kat's fate. Again he felt a shiver. Once more, he couldn't say why, but he thought to be of exhilaration.

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Viper hadn't climbed up thirty steps yet and a jeep came to a halt in the small parking lot at the side of the reservoir. Chris opened the door and stretched to get the bag of doughnuts, kicking the door shut when he got out of the vehicle. Eating one of the rounded sweets, he used his foot again to open the front door of the reservoir, which he had left unlocked.

The image that greeted him was the last he ever expected to see. He just lay there, frozen, his mouth hanging open while he dropped the paper bag with the sweets. Only seconds later did he recover enough to scream for his friend's name and run to his lifeless body. He looked at Steve's blood-covered body in shock. Chris was so disturbed that tears didn't even come to his eyes.

His mind raced as he inspected the shattered cabinet. The desk was turned over, as were both chairs. In the floor he saw the flashlight and a magazine. Finally, the glass protection was shattered and Steve was the cause for its shattering, no doubt about that. He quickly figured that someone else had done this to Steve. Suddenly, something snapped in his mind. *Someone else* had done that, which meant that there was an *intruder* inside the reservoir. That *shouldn't* happen! Forgetting his friend for a few moments, he picked up the phone's receiver and dialed to Enforcer Headquarters.

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Sergeant Owen was almost falling asleep when the frantic ring of the phone woke him up from his stupor. Grumbling, the somnolent enforcer tried to reach the receiver.

"Enforcer Headquarters. What's the situation?" - he responded. The voice from the other end flowed in a flood, as if suddenly someone had opened a tap. - "Sir, calm down, please. Yes, I know it's urgent but if you don't explain the nature of your emergency I can't..."

"Just *shut up* and *listen*!" - Chris cried out - "There's an intruder inside Megakat Water Company's reservoir number 5 at the VIP's district. The intruder has killed my partner and is loose inside the reservoir. You *have* to send a chopper patrol *on the double*! I'll try to stop him."

Sergeant Owen suddenly found himself listening to the continued dialing tone. It could be just a crank call but it seemed to be serious. After last Wednesday's rebuke, given by Comdr. Feral himself, he wasn't willing to take any chances. He quickly retransmitted the message to the nearest chopper, putting on the message a tinge of emergency.

Settling back in the chair, Sergeant Owen sighed. He did what he had to do in time now. There was nothing Comdr. Feral would have to say about his behavior this time.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

Razor and T-Bone were out for the hunt that night. Again, Razor had insisted with T-Bone to come along, to what T-Bone only *very* reluctantly agreed. But everything was going smoothly. Despite a sneeze just after they left the Salvage Yard, Razor was doing fine. T-Bone was beginning to relax when Razor called him.

"T-Bone, I'm picking up a transmission on the emergency band. It looks serious. I think we oughtta take a look."

"Just point the way, bud."

"Water reservoir number five, near Manx's house."

"We're there." - the tabby announced as he maxed the TurboKat up, setting course to the reservoir tower.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

It was a panting and very tired Doctor Viper that the top of the reservoir tower greeted. Climbing up hundreds of steps with a ten-liter barrel at his back wasn't an easy task. Even so, the work wasn't done. In fact, it just began. The reptilian scientist approached the border of the reservoir and quickly located the hatch that accessed the reservoir itself. Unsurprisingly, it had a lock. Viper sighed. Putting down the metallic barrel with his bacteria, he reached for the lock. Inserting one claw into it, he started revolving it inside until he unlocked the hatch. From that point on, it only took him a few moments to open the hatch and get inside.

Inside the reservoir there was a metallic ladder that ran down the wall from the hatch. Two meters below the ceiling there was a metallic catwalk connecting the ladder and the central column, which bore in its interior the staircase that lead to the top of the reservoir. Viper leapt to the catwalk, landing with a metallic thud. He looked around and grinned, despite the recent worry that had taken over him. The smell that stung his nostrils when he opened the hatch made him remember something he hadn't considered: chlorine. He didn't know if his bacteria would survive the bactericide. He'd made sure they were antibiotic-resistant but chlorine wasn't an antibiotic but rather a simple poisonous element. There was no defense he could have inserted in his bacteria against chlorine. He just hoped the concentration wasn't too high, since chlorine was poisonous for kats as well.

He put the metallic barrel on the catwalk and prepared to take off the lid when he heard a metallic thud behind him. Turning around, he saw a tom coming towards him with a blaster trained on his person. Viper narrowed his eyes. It appeared that the late night watcher had a friend.

"Well, well, Doctor Viper..." - Chris stated out as he stopped just a few feet away from Viper. He grabbed the blaster with both paws. - "It's really a pity I just called the Enforcers... I could've taken you right here, right now!"

"Enough talk, insssolent little mammal!" - Viper said as he rammed his tail against Chris's head, throwing the guard over the catwalk. The next second a strong splashing sound filled the reservoir, echoing for a few seconds inside the cavernous space. The unconscious body of the young guard rouse up to the surface. The blaster rapidly sank to the bottom. - "Impertinent mammalsss..."

Viper returned his attention to the barrel. He crouched and uncapped it. His paws were slightly trembling of the thrill. He carried the barrel to the catwalk's banister and prepared to drop its pestilent load into the water.

"Finally! Victory is within my grasssp! Nothing can ssstop me now!"

Just before the first drop of the bacterial soup would drip into the water, a well-aimed projectile headed towards the barrel, yanking it off Viper's paws and making it fly towards the central column. Viper looked to the central column not really understanding what had happened. In there stood a large blot of some sticky black substance that looked like tar, which had enveloped the barrel completely, sealing it and gluing it to the wall of the column.

Still not completely grasping what had happened, Viper turned his head in the direction of the hatch. He saw a slim blue-clad form at the beginning of the catwalk, with a smoldering glove-like apparatus. Only then he realized what'd happened.

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When T-Bone and Razor reached the reservoir tower, Razor visually scanned the top of the building and promptly found the hatch that granted access to the inside of the reservoir open. He became worried. Whatever was happening, was already under course and they could have arrived too late. Without waiting for T-Bone to land the jet, the slim SWAT Kat had popped open the canopy and had rapidly strapped out of his seat, jumping to the ceiling of the tower. Once he steadied his landing, he had darted for the hatch while T-Bone tried to find a suitable landing site, unwilling to leave Razor alone for long.

Razor had peered inside the reservoir through the hatch for less than a second. From his standpoint, he didn't see anyone. He'd climbed down the stairs as rapidly and silently as he could and finally, when his feet reached the cold metal of the catwalk, he saw the reptilian scientist ready to pour the content of a metallic barrel into the water.

Razor had acted almost by reflex, taking a careful aim at the barrel and firing two mini tar-pedoes. With that, he'd managed not only to rip the barrel off Viper's paws but also seal it, confining whatever was inside the container to it's interior. Now all that was left to do was to arrest Doctor Viper.

That, however, wouldn't be an easy task. Viper had wakened up from his original stupor, clenching his teeth into a wild sneer of displease. From surprise he quickly passed the bridge to rage.

"Wretched SSSWAT Kat!" - he hissed - "You won't get out of here alive!"

Viper growled and lowered his torso into attack position. His eyes were coruscating with a golden flare and he roared before he pounced over Razor. Pressed by the lack of space, the SWAT Kat rolled over to the front, passing underneath the pouncing reptilian kat. When he came to his feet on the other side, he quickly turned around but everything he saw was a green blur coming right at him, hitting him with a tremendous force on his gut, making him fly over the waters across the reservoir and knocking against the far-out wall. Another splash filled the cavernous space for a few seconds. Razor's head came quickly to the surface, gasping for air. When he looked towards the catwalk, Viper was already climbing up the stairs and getting out of the reservoir.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

"Monthsss of planning *ruined* by that accursssed SSSWAT Kat!" - Viper hissed as he climbed up the stairs - "I can't believe all my plansss went down the drain like ssso much..."

The reptilian scientist didn't have time to finish his sentence. He was still halfway inside the reservoir when he felt himself being flung into the air with a powerful initial jolt.

"Well, well... Look what the kat dragged in..." - a gruff voice echoed in his ears. Viper looked up surprised and then he saw T-Bone's face with that characteristic smile that always seemed to be present in that vigilante's mien. Viper recovered faster from his surprise than he had down in the reservoir. He fumed. Being surprised twice in the same night was too much. He balled his fist and rammed it against T-Bone's stomach, catching the tabby by surprise and making the SWAT Kat double over, releasing the scientist from the iron grip of his paws. Profiting from the edge he'd won, Viper snapped his tail like a whip against T-Bone's left flank, which managed to rip another grunt of pain from the burly tom.

Making a run for it, Viper tried to reach the door to the helicoidal staircase. He was just about to reach it when he felt something grabbing his tail and pulling him with it. He went down on all fours, fully unsheathing and riveting his claws on the roof, trying to stop the pull. But the strength of his attacker was too much for him. His claws scratched the roof, leaving long claw marks as the SWAT Kat pulled the scientist towards him. He roared, his eyes acquiring a bright golden glow. In an outburst of anger, he found enough strength to raise his tail and unbalance the SWAT Kat, making him fall to the roof. Unfortunately for him, the SWAT Kat didn't let go of his tail, giving it an even stronger pull that made Viper come flying towards T-Bone, knocking against him and throwing both over the edge of the tower.

"LET GO OF MY TAIL, YOU FILTHY MAMMAL!" - Viper roared as he gripped the banister that filled the perimeter of the tower with tooth and nail, feeling the weight of the burly SWAT Kat stretching his spine almost beyond the unbearable point.

"FILTHY? IT SURE ISN'T ME WHO STINKS!" - T-Bone retorted. He grabbed Viper's tail with both paws, his feet dangling at the wind some fifty meters above the ground down below.

"YOU'RE GOING TO GET USSS BOTH KILLED, WRETCHED SSSWAT KAT!" - Viper screamed as his eyes acquired a brightly intense golden glow. The banister was giving in to their combined weight. In a few seconds, vigilante and scientist would fall into the dark chasms of the night. Out of desperation, the reptilian scientist's mind thought of something that would help him get out of such a situation. He looked down, trying to locate T-Bone. Due to his position, he couldn't get a clear sight of the brawny SWAT Kat. He started moving his tail in each time larger arcs.

He finally had a good sight of the SWAT Kat. He tried to open his mouth but the position made that act difficult. Nevertheless, in the next tail arc, he launched a gob of acidic saliva towards the paws of the SWAT Kat. He missed. He tried again and this time hit five inches above the target. He looked up, hissing and clenching his teeth, feeling the burn of the acid in his tail. He roared and tried again when the SWAT Kat came into his field of vision again. This time, his aim was perfect.

T-Bone's paws were covered in a sticky and slimy dark green substance. Even with his leather gloves on, he could feel the acid slowly perforating them and contacting the fur and skin beneath the leather. He started to feel his paws burn when another gob of that crud hit him in the same spot. This time he felt a surge of pain rushing to his brain. He was forced to let go of the tail and fall into the darkness.

Viper suddenly felt himself very light. He realized his plan had worked and quickly pulled himself up onto the tower's roof. He hadn't yet fully regained his composure when he saw a paw coming out from the hatch that granted access to the interior of the reservoir. The other SWAT Kat was coming out. He had to be gone, fast! He ran to the hatch and shut it close, throwing Razor down to the catwalk inside. He then sprinted towards the door in order to get out of the tower. He was getting inside when he heard a gruff voice from behind him.

"Leaving so soon, Doc?"

Viper looked behind but only saw a dark mass rushing towards him from the sky. The mass collided with the scientist and both bodies went rolling down the flights of stairs. Viper knew now what had it him. It was the burly SWAT Kat. How he'd managed to get back on top of the tower, he had no way to know. Even so, he tried to make sure that it was the SWAT Kat that received the majority of the impacts against the stairs. The helicoidal staircase went down continuously with a dip of ten degrees, without any landings. They took about three minutes falling, entwined on each other. When they reached the end of the stairs, it was T-Bone that absorbed the final impact.

Viper tried to get to his feet as quickly as he could. He gave a couple of steps but had to stop for a few seconds, since his head was spinning. He turned around and saw the brawny SWAT Kat getting up and taking off something from his back that fell on the ground with a loud metallic thud. He saw the powerful form advancing towards him. A rapid check to the vigilante's eyes told Viper immediately he wasn't pleased at all. For someone who had received the majority of the bumps of the fall, he surely seemed quite refreshed.

The snake-kat took a step back, trying to keep a safe distance from the enraged SWAT Kat. He then noticed the limping. The vigilante wasn't so well after all. Viper tried a tail lash to the SWAT Kat's face but T-Bone grabbed the tail tightly in his injured paws, making them burn even more. He pulled the scientist close to him and grabbed his lab coat's collar with one paw, while the other, balled in a fist, crashed on Viper's face, sending the good doctor to the ground.

Viper was shivering with terror. T-Bone had such a fierce look on his face that his eyes were nearly glowing. The tabby was coming towards him again and Viper realized that the chances of getting out of there alive were very thin. Again, fear turned into desperation, which, in turn, changed into rage. He lunged to the vigilante, tackling him at the waist. Both kats lost their stands and fell over each other, entwining into a fight.

After a hard blow to his head, Viper was groggy and T-Bone pushed him away only to lunge at the snake-kat again. He tried to pin the reptilian scientist down but before he could do that, he felt a strong odor of disinfectant invading his nostrils. Temporarily distracted, Viper saw in it his last mean of escape. Gathering all the strength he still had, he gave a powerful kick to the tabby's gut, which made the tom double over. Quickly getting to his feet, Viper lashed T-Bone's head with his tail, sending him flying over to the motorized pumps. While T-Bone tried to regain his stand, Viper escaped through the front door. When T-Bone came to the door, there was absolutely no sign of Doctor Viper...

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Razor ran down the stairs as fast as he could but slowly enough so as not to slip and roll down the stairs just like T-Bone and Viper had done minutes ago. With his soaking wet outfit, his paws made splashing sounds as he ran down the helicoidal staircase. Razor had just barely opened a gap of the hatch when he saw T-Bone, boosted by his jetpack, head down towards the door to the staircase. The next second, both him and Viper were gone. He'd quickly figured out what had happened. He just hoped T-Bone was alright after the fall.

When the slim kat reached the ground level, he saw T-Bone leaning against the door and staring at the dark night outside. He noticed the jetpack discarded in the middle of the hall. More slowly now, Razor walked to his partner, touching him slightly in the shoulder when he reached him.

"You okay, buddy?" - Razor asked softly. T-Bone's shoulders heaved up and dropped in a sigh.

"I let him escape..." - the brawny kat whispered in a disappointed tone.

"C'mon, you've done all you could..." - Razor soothed - "Don't be so harsh on yourself!"

T-Bone closed his eyes and dropped his head to his chest. - "I suppose... But I had him in my paws and I just let him get away..."

"Calm down, buddy! We'll catch him next time, you'll see" - Razor cheered his partner up - "Now let's get back top side before we encounter resistance, if you get my meaning."

"Let's go. We have nothing left to do here, anyway." - T-Bone acquiesced, limping up the stairs and releasing a painful sigh as he climbed up the first step. Razor picked up the discarded jetpack and examined it briefly. It was broken beyond any repair. Still, he put it on.

Once they reached the roof, Razor asked T-Bone to go down with him to the reservoir and take the tar-sealed barrel with them. Only with a great amount of physical energy did the duo manage to rip the sealed container off the central column. They hadn't yet embarked in the TurboKat when the beam of the front flashlight of an Enforcer chopper hit them. The enforcer still tried to stop them but their machine was too fast for a simple Enforcer helicopter. No doubt that, in other times, Feral would try to pin the disturbance caused in the water reservoir on them. It was a good thing that they had Feral on their side now: there would be no way to prove that they didn't kill Steve Harding, one of the night guards of Megakat Water Company's reservoir number 5.

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The Turbokat's engines came to a halt when the slick dark jet reached the end of the tarmac of their underground hangar. As the hydraulic lifter raised the platform with the TurboKat on top to the upper level, both SWAT Kats strapped out of their seats. As the platform ended it's 180º revolution, T-Bone popped open the canopy and both toms removed their helmets, getting up from their seats. After having jumped to the ground, both vigilantes headed for the lockers.

T-Bone's limping had gotten worse and his grimace of pain whenever he used his left foot to support the weight of his body was proof enough to that. The tabby took off his mask and Razor could see the tired features of his partner. They started undressing their uniforms. When Chance took off his shirt Jake could see his torso riveted with bruises. The jetpack had protected the tabby to some extent but the stony steps were merciless. His legs were even worse than his torso - they had taken the entire brutality of the fall.

"Chance, you need some attention, you know?" - Jake said, concerned with the tabby's condition - "You took quite a few blows from those steps! Look at all those bruises!"

"It's nothing... I'm fine..." - Chance said as he dressed up his overalls.

"You always say you're fine, Chance! Why don't you just admit you're hurt? Remember what you promised me a year and a half ago? That you'd tell me whenever you were hurt?"

"C'mon, Jake! It's just a few bruises! Nothing serious!" - the tabby stated as he clipped his belt. Jake noticed he was dragging the words as if he was extremely tired. He was amid these contemplations when a strange feeling inside his nostrils made him sneeze. - "Besides, it's not me who needs attention..." - Chance stated out, grinning just a bit.

"I suppose that forced bath will make me get worse again. Guy, the water was freezing! And what a smell to chlorine! I guess I'm lucky if my uniform doesn't get bleached!" - the slim kat said as he finished dressing up. Only then, he noticed Chance hadn't taken out his gloves yet. He pointed that to Chance.

"Duh! Stupid me!" - he said as he tried to pull the gloves out. As he did it, a burning feeling shot through his brain, making him flinch and groan in pain. The leather was glued to his skin thanks to the acid. The attempt to take off the gloves had ripped a piece of skin and the wound was bleeding a bit now.

"How did that happen?" - Jake asked, concerned, when he heard the groan and saw the blood.

"Viper spit some acid over my paws back there..." - the tabby explained.

"Hold on. Let's get you up there and see what we can do with that. Maybe we can cut off the gloves and remove the pieces slowly." - Jake proposed as he headed for the stairs that led to the garage. Chance hadn't staggered three steps when he let out a low grunt and started falling to the floor, as in slow motion. Jake noticed that and got back in time to prevent Chance from collapsing to the ground. He held the tabby's dead weight over his shoulder as he called the brawny kat's name, trying to wake him up. But Chance had fainted and was completely unconscious already.

Jake positioned his friend's bulk over his back and tried to climb up the stairs with Chance on his back. A few difficult and tiring minutes later, they were in the living room. Jake took the tabby to their room and left the tabby on his own bed. Then he went to the bathroom for their first-aid kit. Grabbing the pair of small scissors and some gauze, he tried to remove the partially dissolved gloves from the tabby's paws.

"Look at this mess!" - Jake thought to himself - "I had no idea Viper's saliva could be so acid! The gloves dissolved and merged with his skin... I have to take care not to cut him too much..." - he sighed - "And, he wouldn't let me know about his paws, I'm sure! That's why he didn't take off the gloves down at the hangar. Damn, it Chance! You promised me! You promised you would tell me whenever you got hurt! And now you were willing to break that promise! Why do you always have to put up this show, this tough guy attitude towards me? I know you better than that, I know you're just a big softy..."

With lots of patience, Jake managed to free Chance's paws from the leather gloves, though the gloves would have to be thrown to the garbage now. He then disinfected Chance's paws and wrapped them in bandages, leaving his fingers out. In a way it was a good thing that Chance had blacked out, otherwise, Jake wouldn't have managed to take care of the tabby because of the pain he would feel. Remembering the tabby's bruises, he took the opportunity to do something about them as well.

He removed Chance's clothes until the tabby was merely with his shorts on. Jake removed a small pot of balm from the first-aid kit and rubbed some of it on the bruises. He started with the tabby's legs, which were nearly all purple. The front of his torso didn't have many bruises since it was protected with Viper's body. That was a good thing, since the front of the torso was the most sensitive area of a kat and the chance of getting internal injuries was higher in that area than in the back.

The slim kat turned Chance so the tabby was lying on his stomach. The brawny kat's back were more bruised than his front, the result of both the stony steps and the metallic jetpack. If the front of a kat was a good place to get inner injuries, the back was the perfect place to get a kat paraplegic. Luckily, that hadn't happened to his friend, Jake thought. When he was done with the tabby's back, he checked his arms for bruises. There were a few there too. He rubbed the emollient balm in them as well.

Jake turned the tabby around again. There was still one thing to do: Chance's left foot. He touched the tabby's foot, trying to see if something was broken. Not being experienced in that kind of thing, Jake wasn't much sure of what he was doing but he thought Chance hadn't broken his foot. It must have been a luxation or a simple twist. He wrapped the tabby's foot tightly with some bandage.

*Finally* the tabby was done. Jake pulled the sheet over to Chance's chest. He examined his friend's features. He still seemed exhausted. - "Well, I've done everything I could..." - Jake thought. He was about to pack everything back into the kit when he saw a rounded reddish mark on the tabby's outer forearm he hadn't noticed before. - "Well, well... What do we have here? Another bruise? It doesn't look like... Maybe a drop of acid spilt to his forearm and he didn't notice it..." - the slim kat muttered to himself. He grabbed some cotton soaked in disinfectant and rubbed the place. Then, just to make sure, he rubbed some of the balm over it, in case it was some sort of atypical bruise.

That done, he prepared to get some sleep himself. Taking off his clothes, he looked himself in the mirror. It was then that he saw the huge bruise he had across his abdomen, in the exact place where Viper had hit him with his tail. He sighed. Taking off the pot of balm from the first-aid kit he rubbed some on his own bruises. That done, he put the kit back into the bathroom's case and went to his bed for some well-deserved sleep and rest.

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It was nearly dawn when a very tired and battered Doctor Viper reached his laboratory. The chilling swamp water woke him up a bit, making the green kat focus on his final task - to climb up the mutated giant tree. After minutes of straining effort, Viper managed to drag his body inside the lab. He headed for a vine-made stretcher and lay down in there. His brain was a maelstrom of feelings: tiredness, frustration, anger... One feeling in particular, however, was nagging the reptilian scientist more than the others: that he'd just been plainly naive...

"How could have I been so *sssssstupid*?" - he angrily thought to himself - "How could have I though that it would be so *sssssimple* to infect the whole city?"

He smacked his closed fist on the stretcher, making a few shreds of wood fly to the floor. Waving his head in a negative, he mentally cursed his stupidity.

"My plan was perfect... Or ssso I thought... Fact is, I haven't anticipated that sssomething could happen to the container *before* I poured the bacteria into the water... I should have had a backup plan..." - he hissed out aloud to himself before turning to the other side - "And, even if I had poured my bacteria into the water, my plan was doomed to fail anyway... The first sssetback I encountered was the chlorine... I'm almossst sure my bacteria wouldn't sssurvive the disinfectant... Then, I remembered sssomething elssse on my way back here... The reservoir has bacteriological filters inssstalled exactly to prevent thisss kind of actionsss. The bacteria I used are giants among the prokaryotes and would get easily caught in the filters..."

Viper got up, unable to stop for a while. The failure of his most beloved plan made him restless. He went to the east balcony. From there, he watched as the sun rouse up in the skies. The first warm rays of light hit him in the face and he closed his eyes, savoring the morning's first warmth.

"My bacteria *are* perfect... They're the mossst perfect killersss ever to ssset foot on thisss planet. The *vector* was the inadequate thing in my plan. I should have never planned to pour them into the reservoir's water... That would *never* work... In order for that to work, I'd have to use marine bacteria, which are much sssmaller than the giants I usssed... But that wouldn't work either, sssince marine bacteria are very sssensitive and they'd die just as they were dropped into that chlorinated water... I could have usssed virusessssss... But they're ssso hard to cultivate _in vitro... And the ones I'd like to use aren't accessssible to me..."_

The reptilian scientist raised his arms over his head and stretched his stiff muscles, yawning. He once more stared at the rising red orb.

"No... The bacteria are the perfect biological warfare... Especially these mutated bacteria, not sssome _Bacillus anthracis or __Clostridium botulinum..." - he sighed and smiled, savoring the irony - "Though the genes I inserted in my bacteria'sss genome are from a rather widessspread ssstrain of clostridia..." - his smile vanished - "Yesss, my bacteria are perfect... Maybe a tad too large, if at all... I jussst have to find a sssuitable vector for them..."_

Viper put his paws inside the pockets of his lab coat. Suddenly, he felt a cold object inside the right pocket. He took it out and took a few moments to understand what it was and what was it doing in his pocket. Then he remembered. It was the vaccination pistol he'd filled with his bacteria. He intended to use it in case of an attack against his person. He never got the chance to use it, he thought to himself. His features expressed surprise when he looked to the glass container of the pistol. It was empty, with just a few yellowish drops of the pestilent soup inside.

"That'sss odd..." - Viper said, stroking his chin - "I don't remember to have usssed the pissstol... Maybe it just leaked... But that's imposssible..." - the green kat yawned - "Oh, well... I'll sssolve this puzzle later... Right now, I think I deserve sssome sssleep..."

He returned to his lab and placed the empty vaccination pistol on top of the lab bench. Out of habit, he looked towards the stove. He remembered the Petri dishes he left inside.

"Besidessssss... I have bigger fish to fry..." - he yawned again, showing the rows of razor-sharp teeth - "When I wake up..."

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TO BE CONCLUDED…

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	2. The Tiny Bacteria: Part Two

**_TITLE:_**

THE TINY BACTERIA – Part Two

**_AUTHOR:_**

C. L. Furlong

**_DATE:_**

January 17, 2003

**_FINISHED:_**

March 5, 2003

**_LAST REVISION:_**

March 5, 2003

**_E-MAIL:_**

chance_lizard_furlong@aeiou.pt 

**_RATING:_**

PG13 (some violence and gore)

**_SUMMARY:_**

Enhanced by genetic engineering, a pestilence with no parallel throughout katkind history is unleashed by one kat, and all will perish unless a cure is found… quickly!

**_DISCLAIMER:_**

SWAT Kats and anything related to the series is the property of Hanna-Barbera. No infringement is intended and no profit is gained with this fiction.

**_COMMENTS:_**

Second and final part of this story. Tired of Biology? Well, in this part you won't really get a rest, save due to its end, which somewhat resembles "Razor's Edge". Well, I really didn't have any idea how this story would develop. I just had the main concept and then threw in a few things that felt right when I wrote it. I think it all turned out quite satisfactory in the end. I hope you SK fans out there enjoy it.

My upfront apologies to KS Claw… I just *know* she won't approve what I did with our poor Viper…

My deepest gratitude once more to Helion, for his comments on this and many other of my works. They *were* precious, even though you might disagree here. BTW, perhaps *now* I can devote more time to that project (you know what I'm talking).

And, last but not least, thanks to all the anonymous readers and to those who had reviewed my previous fictions.

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**_"I'm letting you help me... as a living test tube for my new bacteria strain!"_**

****

**_Dr. Viper _****in_ "The Giant Bacteria"_**

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**THE TINY BACTERIA – PART TWO**

         Jake woke up when the bedroom was illuminated by a great luminosity. He reluctantly opened his eyes and saw as a bright light filled the entire room. Turning his head towards the window, he saw that the luminosity was coming from outside. The strong light was almost blinding him. The strong coughing made the slim kat notice a dark form coming towards him, limping just a bit.

         "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" - Chance's hoarse voice echoed in his ears. Jake yawned and stretched, sitting up on the bed. He felt a shiver running through his body.

         "What time is it?" - the slim kat asked as he rubbed his still sleepy eyes.

         "10 a.m.." - Chance informed as he sat on Jake's bed, by the slim kat's feet. Jake opened up his eyes suddenly, startled with Chance's info. Chance placed a paw on Jake's feet. - "Of a beautiful Saturday morning. The garage is closed." - Chance completed before coughing once more.

         Jake powered down. With all of last night's excitement at the water tower, he had forgotten today was Saturday. He looked to the tabby. - " You gave me one heck of a headache last night! Couldn't you have blacked out up here?"

         Chance blushed and looked down to his feet. - "I'm sorry... I don't know what happened..."

         "But *I* know!" - Jake retorted - "You couldn't take the pain anymore. You've been trying to ignore it since we came out of that water tower. You were hiding your injuries from me and when you couldn't contain the pain anymore, you passed out."

         Chance kept his eyes boring holes on the ground. He suppressed another cough. Jake embraced his own knees and rested his chin over his crossed arms.

         "You were keeping your injuries from me... like you did with that bullet that almost *killed* you..." - Jake shook his head in a negative - "I can't see why can't you trust me on that. We're a team, for crying out loud. We're more than a team, we're friends, pals, buds!"

         "Brothers..." - Chance thought.

         "Why won't you let me help you?" - Jake continued - "Why do you always have to come with this stupid macho attitude to me? You know darn well I'm more macho than you'll ever be!" - Jake smiled as he uttered the last sentence.

         "Oh, that's just what you wished!" - Chance said, smiling, after what he had to cough, unable to hold it any longer.

         "That's the truth, you just don't want to see it." - Jake said as he gave Chance's back a friendly slap that made the tabby wince. - "Oops! Sorry, bud! How are you holdin' up?"

         "I see I gave you more trouble than just carrying me from the hangar to my bed!" - Chance grinned, showing his bandaged paws and left foot. - "Not to mention that you had me all greased up as though I were in some bodybuilding contest!"

         "You needed attention!" - Jake retorted.

         "I know..." - Chance said, with a thankful look in his features - "I know, buddy... And I'm very grateful to you, Jake... I know I promised you I wouldn't hold back when I got injured... Fact is, I don't really know why I do that... Seems like I'm trying to prove something to me... I dunno..." - Chance laid a paw on Jake's arm - "But I *do* want you to know that I'm really thankful for you having taken care of me... Thanks for being here for me, Jake... Buddy..."

         "Anytime, buddy..." - Jake responded as he patted Chance's paw on his arm - "Count on that..."

         Both toms smiled to each other, mutually reassuring themselves. Chance took off his paw from Jake's arm and coughed again.

         "So, how are *you* holdin' up?" - Chance asked.

         "Well, so far so good but I think the fever has returned... I'm having chills all over my torso..." - the slim kat responded as he placed his palm over his forehead. It seemed a bit warm to Jake.

         "That forced bath you took yesterday must be taking its toll on your cold... You weren't yet fully restored..." - Chance had to stop to cough again.

         "Why are you coughing so much this morning? You barely cough at all!" - Jake wondered - "Are you okay?"

         "I dunno. I guess your cold passed on to me… But don't worry! You know I don't fall for a simple cold." - Chance gave Jake his trademark grin when he finished - "As for you, you'd better stay in bed for today. Just in case..."

         "You wished. It may be Saturday but there are two carburetors that need a thorough cleanse, three engines needing a tune-up and one silencer to be replaced waiting down there in the garage."

         "I can handle it all by myself!" - Chance protested.

         "Yeah, right! With your paws and foot like that and with your coughing, I'm sure you can handle it alone just fine. Just gimme a couple of minutes to get washed and dressed up, will you?"

         Chance threw his arms up in a frustrated gesture, defeated. He knew there was no use trying to change Jake's opinion once he had made up his mind.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The day passed, warm, sunny and without story. It was well past six p.m. when Viper woke up from his sleep. After having eaten something, he headed for the stove, last night's fiasco already forgotten. A rush of adrenaline surged over his body, making him shiver in anticipation as he opened the stove's door and retrieved the Petri dishes from the warm inside.

         He brought the Petri dishes to the hotte and, using aseptic technique, tested the fragments of DNA for the specific reaction he was looking for. Three Petri dishes later, he got the reaction he was waiting for. That was the DNA portion that made the blistering-flies produce their poisonous hemolymph. Now he just had to sequence it.

         At the Salvage Yard, Jake and Chance were finishing their dinner. Having had made all the repairs the vehicles standing at the garage needed, they had the night off.

         "Hey, buddy! Wanna go see a flick tonight?" - Chance asked after placing the used plates inside the kitchen sink.

         "Sure! What's on?" - Jake responded.

         "You're gonna like it! It's 'Revenge of the Mutant Space Bats from Exotron'!" - Chance stated out.

         "Cool! Mutant space bats! Count me in! What's the session?"

         "Relax. We've got plenty of time…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "Guy, this is an awesome flick!" – Jake whispered as he fetched some more popcorn.

         "Told you you'd like it." – Chance whispered back. Truth be told, he was getting sort of bored there. Well, at least they were bats and not some mutated space bugs like Hardshell… So Chance was more than pleased to see the "Intermission" sign show up on the large screen. He got up from his seat. – "Gonna get some more popcorn. Wanna come with me?"

         "Nah. I think I'll just stay here."

         "Okay, then." - Chance turned around and left the room. On his way out he lightly groped his throat. He was surprised he didn't cough anymore since he left the Salvage Yard, an hour ago.

         He was about to leave the room, still thinking on it when it came. Cough after cough shot through the cavernous space in a fit like Chance had never had in his life. He had had to lean over his body against the wall to prevent from falling to the ground. Even covering his mouth with both paws in order to lower the noise, Chance was more than sure Jake was on his way down to meet him. Then, just as suddenly as the fit started, it ceased. Chance, still leaning against the wall tried to regain his breath. He saw the faces of the other kats that passed by him. Some were worried, others were annoyed and others yet were indifferent. None, however, stopped to ask him if he was okay or if he needed something.

         Now that the cough had passed, he thought he should leave the room before Jake came down. He grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open, exiting the viewing room and heading to the snack-bar next to it. Swallowing a bit of saliva, which tasted somewhat metallic, he joined the line to the popcorn. Only seconds and some kats later, he saw Jake appearing at the door of the viewing room, dramatically holding it open. The slim kat came to him.

         "Hey, Jake! Thought you wanted to stay put!" – Chance said in the most cheerful tone he managed.

         "I did! Until I heard that fit of coughing! Are you alright?"

         "Fit of coughing? It wasn't me! It was…"

         "Cut the crap, Chance! I think I've been living with you for long enough now to know what your cough sounds like, don't you think?"

         Chance blushed, just like a kitten caught red-handed doing something he shouldn't. Chance just sighed out lightly.

         "Okay, it was I. I've just had this sudden tingling feeling in my throat and I just had to cough. I'm fine now!" – he explained. Jake crossed his arms over his chest.

         "I'm definitely not liking those fits, you know?" – the slim kat said with a concerned look on his features. The picture would have been perfect, weren't it for the sneeze Jake gave out just a second later…

         "I'm sure this is nothing. It's just a silly cold, that's all! Nothing to worry about! Besides, I'm not the only one with a cold around here… And I'd worry much more about yours than I would with mine…"

         "I suppose… Well, let's get going. The flick is about to start again."

         "Let's go."

         They reentered the room and sat down. Much to Chance's surprise, the quality of the movie increased and, in the end, it turned out to be reasonably enjoyable.

         The next day, Jake got up before Chance. He was indeed starting to feel better, though the sneezes he still had and his clogged nostrils clearly told him he wasn't completely safe yet. Only when Jake had already finished washing the dishes used for his breakfast did Chance appear at the kitchen's door, leaning his back against it.

         "Good morning, sleeping ugliness!" – Jake teased him. Chance's looks were terrible, as if he'd been awaken for months. Chance said nothing but an unintelligible grumble as he slowly walked from the kitchen door to the refrigerator.

         "So, I see you've gotten worse since last night." – the slim kat asked Chance, cleaning his paws in a cloth. Again, nothing more than a grumble was heard from the tabby's mouth. He resurfaced from within the freezer with a bottle of orange juice in his paws.

         "Breakfast of the champions…" – Jake commented. – "And you told me…"

         "I remember perfectly what I told you, okay? Back off a while!" – Chance snarled as he rested the lid on the edge of the kitchen table and made it pop out with a short bump on top of the bottle. The slim kat just gave a step back and raised his arms in sign of defeat. Chance seemed more like a caged animal then a rational kat, Jake thought.

         "So, changing the subject a bit. How are your bruises?"

         "Much better, thanks. That medicine worked well. There's not even the slightest sign of them anymore." – the tabby stated after drinking a long draught of juice.

         "I'm glad for that." – Jake said. He was about to turn around when he saw the strange round red bruise on the tabby's forearm. – "What about that bruise, there, on your arm? It should have disappeared by now, with the rest of the others, shouldn't it?"

         "Huh? Oh, yeah, this one… I don't understand it either…" – Chance said as he guided his forefinger to poke on the reddish rounded mark. Just as soon as he touched it he practically dropped the bottle of orange juice. He clenched his teeth. The pain was hardly bearable. – "Cru-ud… It hurts like hell…"

         "What? Lemme see that…" – Jake said as he went to his partner. He took Chance's arm in his paws and passed a finger over the red mark. Just as he passed his finger over it, Chance let out a short yelp of pain.

         "Let it go, Jake! It hurts like hell! OUCH! ARE YOU THROUGH YET OR ARE YOU HAVING FUN?" – Chance bellowed as he retrieved his arm from Jake's paws.

         "Come on, it can't hurt that much! I barely touched it!" – the slim kat said with a doubtful tinge on his words.

         "You say that 'cause it's not you who's feeling…" – Chance complained.

         "What a wimp… Making such a fuss just because of a simple bruise! And I thought I was a woos when I caught a flu…" – Jake said, waving a paw in the air as he stepped away to the garage. Chance just looked to him with a hurtful look in his eyes, just as well as in his forearm.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         Three days went by, hot and sunny, like they should be in the summertime. The surf rolled gently towards the golden sandy shore of Megakat Beach, its soft rumbling sound echoing in the orange ferruginous sandstone cliff behind the small dune belt. However, the long beach seemed more like a coastal desert at the time than a summer attraction. There were but a few kats in the beach, soaking up the warmth of the sun. Never before had Megakat Beach seen so few kats in the middle of the summer. The idleness of the season was masking the horrible events that were taking course in Megakat City. An invisible enemy was spreading like fire across dry bush among the unsuspecting citizens of the great burg. The pestilence was already underway…

         In the Salvage Yard, Jake was watching the evening news in the living room while he sipped a bit of cold milk from the can in his paws.

         "Strange as it may seem…" – the newscaster was saying – "… an outbreak of what appears to be flu is ravaging our city. Yes, you've heard it correctly: influenza in the middle of the summer. Medical specialists have been contacted by MBC to comment on this quasi-absurd fact. They say that, apparently, an unknown reservoir of the influenza virus was kept hidden since perhaps last winter and was now brought to life. These scientists affirm that despite having been unable to isolate the virus, it may be of a new strain. So we'd better get some vitamin C pills off our medical kits and start taking them because it seems that flu came sooner this year."

         "Yeah, I'll say…" – the slim kat acknowledged as he drank another draught of milk – "I've been quite sick with that darn virus a few days back…"

         Suddenly, coughs shot through the air, coming from the kitchen. Jake got up from the sofa and peered at the kitchen. He saw Chance doubled over, his back in spasms as he coughed again and again.

         "You're really sick, buddy." – Jake said as he approached the tabby. He placed a paw over Chance's shoulders. – "You ought to lie down, take some rest… I'm really getting worried with you, you know? I've never seen you like that!"

         "That's because I've never been like this before…" – Chance answered in a raspy voice from the coughing. He swallowed some saliva and it tasted like pure blood. Chance had already coughed blood once or twice that day. That made him extremely uneasy. He looked to the palm of his right paw, the paw he used to cover his mouth during the recent coughing. There were a few red droplets on it. He quickly cleaned his paw at his overalls, unwilling to show it to Jake.

         "Won't you lie down a little? I think you really need it, bud…" – Jake insisted. The slim kat placed a paw on the tabby's forehead and felt the fever burn his palm – "You're feverish!"

         "I know…" – Chance tiredly recognized – "And my body hurts all over… I…" – the tabby never got the chance to end his sentence. A wave of nausea overwhelmed him causing a pressing feeling to vomit. He ran to the bathroom, followed by his slim friend. Chance shut the door closed and hardly had time to reach the toilet. What came from within the tabby scared the heck out of him. Instead of his lunch, only gobs after gobs of thick, pure, red blood came out, dyeing the white sanitary in dark red.

         Chance regained enough composure to assess what was happening to him. He was vomiting blood for apparently no reason. It couldn't possibly be because of the flu. Flues don't cause kats to hurl blood, do they? But if it wasn't because of the cold, then for what reason was he vomiting blood? His thoughts were interrupted by Jake's knocking on the door. The slim kat was calling out for him and demanding to know if the tabby was okay. Chance flushed the toilet, ridding it from its reddish color and washed his lips in the sink. Only then he opened the door.

         "What happened? Are you alright?" – Jake asked, concern spread all over his features. Chance's face was pale like a ghost's.

         "I hurled my lunch… That's all…" – the tabby said as he leaned against the door frame. In doing so, he felt a sharp pain sting his arm.

         "What was that?" – Jake asked as he grabbed Chance's arm, the one that had the rounded marking. When Jake touched Chance's arm, the tabby yelped again in pain and recoiled his arm. – "I didn't touch the bruise…"

         "I know you didn't… But my whole arm is hurting like hell now…" – Chance said in a painful tone. Jake examined Chance's arm. It was reddish and somewhat swollen.

         "I'm just gonna rest my palm slightly on your arm, okay?" – Jake warned.

         "It's gonna hurt… AHH! It hurts… It hurts…" – Chance complained. Jake took his paw off Chance's arm. Just as he suspected, the arm was hot, hotter than the rest of the tabby's body. Whatever was happening, it was happening because of Chance's arm. Chance groped his shoulder, the only spot where the pain was bearable enough.

         "What's happening, Chance? That's no flu you're carrying… It's something else…"

         "Nonsense… I just need a bit of rest, that's all…" – Chance stated out as he passed by his friend.

         Jake shook his head in a negative, in disappointment. Though all the evidence pointed that Chance was suffering terribly, he still refused to be helped…

         "Damn pride, Chance… I'm your friend, not your enemy…" – the slim kat shot out, doing a frustrated gesture. His words made Chance stop dead in his tracks. The tabby lowered his head, as though the weight of Jake's words were too much to bear. Both toms stood there, in silence, for a few seconds, until Jake did a defeated gesture. – "Oh, just forget it…"

         Jake turned around and was meaning to leave when Chance spoke, almost as if he was on the verge of tears. – "Help me, Jake… I dunno what's happening to me… Please…"

         Jake turned around and looked down on Chance. Suddenly, the powerful tom seemed nothing more than a little kat, suffering from some terrible illness. He hated that image. He couldn't possibly know he was seeing almost nothing of the pestilence ravaging throughout Chance's body…

         "Come on, let's sit down on the couch a little, okay?" – the slim kat asked and guided Chance downstairs, to the living room. They sat down in the sofa. – "Now, what really happened upstairs?"

         "I…" – Chance never got to end his sentence since he started coughing again, even more violently than the other times. A few seconds later, the coughing ended. The tabby looked to the paw he used to cover his mouth and saw some red droplets on his palm. He showed it to Jake whose expression just acquired a frightened look. – "This is what happened upstairs… I vomited blood…"

         "Blood… But why? Flues don't cause that, do they?" – Jake asked. His words mirrored the concern he felt inside.

         "I dunno… Only if it develops into pneumonia, I guess… I dunno…" – Chance responded – "All I know is…"

         "What? What is it, Chance?"

         "I'm scared, Jake… Whenever I got sick in the past, I managed always to control my body so that I could cure myself… But now… Now I don't know what's happening to me… I can't control my body, I don't know what's happening inside me… And it's scaring the heck out of me, Jake…" – the tabby confessed.

         "Calm down, buddy… We'll get through this, just like we did with so many things…" – Jake soothed the tabby – "Everything's gonna be alright, you'll see…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "Influenza, hein?" – the reptilian scientist disdainfully said, turning off the radio – "What do those foolsss know about what'sss ravaging the city?" – Viper said as he went outside his lab, towards his balcony.

         He stared into the distance, in the direction of Megakat City. His features bore a mix between confusion and pleasure. He didn't understand how his bacteria managed to spread out to the city but it didn't really matter. He easily recognized the initial symptoms of the disease. He had studied it for months now. There was no doubt in his mind that his bacteria were doing what they were designed for… And doing it very well… His lips spread apart into a smile.

         "Those are my bacteria, alright… I don't know how have they gotten loosssse but it doesn't matter… They are doing what I wanted… And, when the gross of the population is dead, I will ssssstep in to command this foul sssssity… And finally fulfill my dream…" – Viper completed before breaking out in a dry laughter.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "You know I hate staying in bed, Jake…" – Chance complained as he lingered his back against the pillow.

         "We've talked about this already, Chance. You're in no condition to be wandering around the Salvage Yard. So just stay put, mister!" – Jake ordered. Chance just sighed out.

         "Yes, mom…"

         "Good. Now that that's settled, I'll be gone to doc Konway's… It shouldn't take long so don't even think about leaving the bed, you hear me?"

         "Loud and clear…" – Chance said as he watched Jake turn on his heels and leave their bedroom. The tabby uncovered his right arm and looked at it. It was somewhat swollen and red. There was a sunburn-like rash developing in the general area around the strange bruise. The brawny kat attempted to touch it. The pain shot up through his arm. He tried to ignore it. The spot felt tender, too tender, to be precise, as if the flesh was mashed in there.

         "What the hell is going on?" – Chance thought, a tight knot forming on his stomach – "What's happening inside me?"

         Meanwhile, Jake had gone to the hangar, suited up and flown off to Enforcer Headquarters in the TurboKat. In a few minutes, he reached the massive building and sneaked inside, making his way through the empty corridors down to the Biotech Lab.

         "Dr. Konway, why won't you go home? It's already late!" – Spike Trentmoor, the gray tabby colleague of Konway said. The bearded orange-furred biotechnician turned to face is younger assistant.

         "Why don't you go home, Trentmoor? I still have some experiments underway that'll take me a few hours. Go on, now. Your wife's waiting for you."

         "Are you sure you don't need me anymore, Dr.?"

         "I am. Now go on… I'll see you tomorrow."

         The younger scientist undressed his lab coat and stepped out of the laboratory. Razor saw him leaving and waited a few minutes before entering himself into the lab. He grabbed one of the lab coats and put it on.

         "Are you still here, Trentmoor?" – Konway asked without taking his eyes from the Petri dishes he was inoculating with some bacteria – "I told you I don't need your assistance anymore today. You can go home!"

         "Good to see you too, Doc." – Razor said, catching Konway off guard and frightening the scientist.

         "*Razor*! Don't you *ever* sneak up on me again… You scared the heck out of me…" – he looked to the agar in the Petri dish he was working on. The inoculating loop had perforated it, leaving a long carving behind. – "Ah, *rats*… What a waste of perfectly good medium and bacteria…"

         "Um, I'm sorry if I scared you, Doc but I need your help…" – Razor apologized.

         "It's okay." - Konway said as he threw the ruined Petri dish to a plastic bag destined to be autoclaved and placed the inoculating loop into a recipient full of disinfectant – "What's the problem?" - He turned off the Mecker burner and finally disinfected his workplace with 70% alcohol.

         "It's… It's T-Bone… He's sick…"

         "So why don't you take him to a doctor?" – Konway said as he cleaned his glasses on a paper tissue.

         "I think this is beyond an average doctor's skills… He's suffering terribly…"

         "I'm not a medical doctor, Razor! I'm a biotechnician! There's a long distance between the two professions…" – Konway explained.

         "Please, doc… You're the only one I can count on…" – Razor pleaded.

         "Very well… I'll see what I can do… You're right about one thing. I may be no doctor but I've seen most of the diseases in action… At a biochemical level, that is… What are the symptoms?"

         "General malaise, fever, muscle pain, weakness…"

         "Wait a minute, Razor… You're worrying about a common cold! Give T-Bone lots of fluids and some vitamin C, preferably…"

         "Does influenza's symptoms comprise coughing and vomiting blood?" – Razor spat, already losing his temper. Konway was thrown with that.

         "Vomiting blood? How pure was the blood?" – the scientist asked.

         "Pure. Thick and dark red, according to T-Bone."

         That made Konway cock both his eyebrows. No. Sure vomiting pure blood wasn't a flu symptom. – "How long is this going on?"

         "Lemme see… For about five days now, I think." – Razor responded.

         "Any other symptoms?"

         "His right arm is somewhat swollen, hotter than the rest of his body and very, very sensitive. It hurts him a lot just touching the skin."

         "Holy Kats… Do you have any idea what you're describing to me?" – Konway asked with an enthusiastic look on his face.

         "Not really… It isn't ebola, is it?"

         "Huh? Oh, no, no… If it were ebola your partner would've died already… No… What you're describing could probably be confused with pulmonary anthrax, which would explain the blood coughing but not the vomiting. No… What you're describing is, in a way, far more horrible than anthrax or ebola. You're describing a stroke of necrotizing fasciitis." – the bearded scientist explained.

         "Necrotizing what?" – Razor asked, confused.

         "Necrotizing fasciitis. Flesh-eating-bacteria disease. The name is a tad sensationalist but, essentially, the bacteria, generally streptococci, do 'eat flesh'. They attack the subcutaneous tissue which then becomes gangrenous."

         "Gangrene?" – a frightened Razor asked, rhetorically.

         "Precisely. The infection moves swiftly, usually under the skin, where it's not observable. Once tissue becomes necrotic, or dead, it has to be removed. If diagnosed very early, the tissue loss can be… well… relatively small and surgery would be less severe, with removal of flesh, subcutaneous tissue and fat only." – Konway proceeded.

         "Surgery?" – Razor muttered, aghast.

         "The flesh-eating bacteria generally don't attack muscle or bone but, in more advanced cases, major limb amputation may be required."

         "Amputation?"

         "Is there an echo in this room? Oh, well. Death from this condition is also not uncommon. Besides tissue decay, the flesh-eating bacteria causes the rest of the organism to go into systemic shock, which may result in respiratory failure, heart failure, low blood pressure and renal failure. Basically, every system of the body can fail as a result of the severe infection and toxicity of the system. If the bacteria are to enter in the bloodstream, septicemia may arise as well."

         "But it can be cured… Can't it?"

         "Surely. It's relatively easy to destroy the streptococci that cause the necrotizing fasciitis… If it's treated in time…"

         "So there's still hope…" – Razor thought. He directed to the orange-furred scientist then. – "What is it exactly that you need to come up with a cure for T-Bone?"

         "First of all, I'd require a few blood and tissue samples. I'd like to grow the bacteria that infected him so I could determine the most effective antibiotic for them."

         "Tissue samples? How am I gonna do that?" – Razor asked himself – "I better bring him here…"

         The slim SWAT Kat pressed the side of his helmet, activating the communicator. The seconds dragged and turned into minutes. Chance wasn't answering even though he'd left the communicator in his nightstand, right beside him.

         "Something's wrong… T-Bone's not answering… Get everything ready, doc. I'm bringing T-Bone here." – and with that, Razor left the laboratory. Konway started selecting the material he required for the task at paw.

         "Now that I'm at it, I might as well order my dinner. My, won't Ethel be mad at me… Again…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The jet hadn't stopped completely yet and Razor had the canopy already open. He fired the grappling hook to the circular hole on the hangar's ground and reeled himself up. The platform with the TurboKat was still turning when Razor started climbing up the stairs. He had a feeling something was terribly wrong. He didn't care if someone saw him getting out of the hangar in his G-suit, nor climbing up the stairs to the first floor of the body shop and even less if someone saw him storming inside the bedroom to find Chance lying on the bed, motionless.

         Razor went to the big tabby and shook him. It was as good as trying to wake up a dead tom. He placed a paw in his forehead. The tabby was feverish, even more than before. Razor uncovered Chance's arm and opened his mouth in shock and terror. His arm was even more swollen and some sort of rash had spread to his entire forearm. But even worse than that was its color. The brawny kat's arm was purple and the tips of his fingers were so purple they looked almost black.

         "Gangrene!" – Razor thought, horrified – "He's developing gangrene already! I gotta take him to doc Konway at once… Hold on, big bro… Please, hold on…"

         As he once carried Chance from the hangar to the bedroom, Razor now carried the tabby the opposite way. After having dressed Chance in his G-suit, he placed the tabby in the rear seat of the jet and strapped him in. Half an hour after having arrived at the Salvage Yard, Jake flew the TurboKat back to Megakat City and to the tarmac on top of Enforcer Headquarters. Minutes later, he was already in Konway's laboratory.

         "So, where's T-Bone?" – the scientist inquired.

         "T-Bone passed out. He's in the jet. You'd better bring him down in a stretcher or something." – Razor suggested.

         The two kats went to the top of the massive building. Razor took T-Bone out of the TurboKat via bomb bay doors and helped the bearded scientist putting him into the stretcher. Konway covered the tabby with a sheet and entered the lifter, accompanied by the slim SWAT Kat.

         "He seems to be in the brink of systemic shock… And the gangrene in his endings… It doesn't make sense… The timing isn't correct… Either I'm mistaken or this is a quite virulent strain of streps…" – the doctor reasoned. His thoughts were interrupted when the lifter stopped. A quick check to the panel to his right immediately told him they hadn't reached the Biotech Lab level yet. Someone must have pressed the button to enter the elevator.

         "Someone's…" – Konway said but never got the time to finish his sentence. The doors opened and an enforcer entered.

         "G' night, doc." – the enforcer said. He looked to the covered body on the stretcher. – "What's that, doc?"

         "Um, some mutated creatures… From Viper… Commander Feral wanted them analyzed." – Konway blabbered.

         "Really? Can I see it?"

         "Um, I don't think that's such a good idea… They're really not a sight for sore eyes…"

         "Oh… Well, I usually don't let those things get to me but I haven't quite been myself lately…" – the enforcer said, after what he irrupted in a burst of coughing. He used his left paw to cover his mouth. When he looked to it he saw it sprinkled with red droplets. – "Now how about that? It's been happening this to me since this afternoon… I dunno what damn cold is this but I'm seein' a doctor first thing in the morning! Oops! My floor! Been nice talkin' to you, doc. G' night."

         "Good night…" – Konway said, almost sighing out in relief. The scientist looked around to see if he could find Razor but the slim SWAT Kat appeared to have vanished into thin air. – "Now where did that tom go?"

         "Psst! Hey, doc! Up here!" – Razor called from above. Konway looked up and saw Razor pinned to the ceiling of the lifter with his claws. The slim SWAT Kat jumped down. – "Did you see that, doc? That enforcer was coughing blood too! That's the same symptom T-Bone had!"

         "It may not be the same thing, Razor. Some times, similar syndromes might mean different illnesses. Ah, finally! My lab! Let's go!"

         They got inside the Biotech Lab and Konway locked the doors. He quickly uncovered the big SWAT Kat and retrieved the necessary blood and tissue samples from the brawny kat. When Konway removed a small patch of skin of T-Bone's right forearm, blood along with a stinky reddish paste came out of the small wound. The orange-furred scientist collected both the skin and the paste before applying a disinfected compress on the small wound.

         "Okay. You have the samples you required." – Razor stated out – "Now what?"

         "Now I have to grow them, which may take a while… Maybe a few hours." – Konway explained as he disinfected his workbench with a mix of disinfectant and alcohol. He then ignited the Mecker burner and started working on the ascendant air cone created by the burner's flame.

         Razor looked down on T-Bone with concern. - "I don't think he can hold that long…"

         "Yes, I understand your concern… This is the worst case of necrotizing fasciitis I've ever seen… Not that I've seen many but, nonetheless… And, if that enforcer has the same thing your partner has… That means he somehow got infected by the same strain of bacteria… Which is fairly strange, since necrotizing fasciitis is not contagious…" – Konway reasoned as he poured some agar into several Petri dishes.

         "It's not?"

         "I mean, you only have this disease by accident… Happenstance…" – the bearded orange-furred biotechnician said as he prepared the samples for inoculation on the nutritive medium he'd just made – "I've read of kats that have caught this disease after being submitted to surgery, after scratching a rash, from a scratch, after bumping a leg with a golf bag, after a friendly punch in the arm from a buddy or even from no known trauma at all! Infection by flesh-eating bacteria can virtually come out of nowhere! But it is *not* airborne, that's for sure!"

         "Is there no way to prevent it?"

         "Well, just like with many other bacterial and viral diseases…" – Konway answered as he moved the Petri dishes in circles, ensuring that the medium was already solid – "… most times cleanliness is the key. It never harms to wash your paws after sneezing or coughing. Did you know that it's easier to catch flu by shaking paws with someone with flu than if that person sneezed on you?"

         Razor seemed surprised with that.

         "That's true for flues and some more illnesses." – Konway said as he pipetted some blood on a few Petri dishes and spread it on the solid medium with an L-shaped glass spreader – "You see, the influenza virus is a quite resistant one. It can survive outside an organism for a whole hour, never losing its virulence. If you shake paws with someone that had sneezed less than an hour ago and if he or she has the virus in his or her paws and if you then rub your eyes, for instance, well, you can kiss your health goodbye…"

         "So I guess I might as well buy a good supply of antibacterial soaps and antibiotics, right?"

         "That would probably be one of your biggest mistakes, Razor. Most so-called 'antibacterial' soaps and detergents have only a very limited effectiveness. Some claim they are capable of wiping out 99% of household bacteria. That's a plain lie. We don't even know 1% of the total bacterial species that exist on this planet. Furthermore, the widespread use of antibiotics is dangerous. Just look at tuberculosis. That old foe has become resistant to antibiotics because they were so largely used to fight it." – Konway said with an exasperated tone.

         "But antibiotics are vital to katkind…" – Razor retorted.

         "Are they?" – Konway snapped – "Are they really essential to our life? I think your argument may have a tip of truth but it's not entirely accurate. You see, by our widespread application of antibiotics we have eradicated a few illnesses, yes… But, are they really eradicated or merely dormant? Every year antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria arise, bacteria that *we* mutated with our blind use of antibiotics. You have a small symptom and WHAM: you take an antibiotic. We want to avoid infection so WHAM-O again: disinfect with antibiotics. Our hospitals are a melting pot for the arising of new mutated antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We *must* limit our use of antibiotics… It's our future as a species that is at stake if we don't take some action now…"

         "I see I struck a nerve…" – Razor muttered.

         "Ask any microbiologist… They'll answer the same to you…" – Konway retorted as he closed the last Petri dish. He then stacked the rounded plastic boxes into three piles of six dishes each, fastening them with adhesive tape and putting them upside down inside the stove. – "There… Now all we have to do is wait…"

         The night passed and Razor didn't leave T-Bone's side. From time to time he'd measure the tabby's temperature, as Konway required and each time, the temperature was higher than before. Another symptom developed. The tabby presented some dark boil-like blisters on his arm, which was entirely purple now. His paw was practically black due to the gangrene. The redness had now passed to the tabby's torso, as did the rash.

         Razor had no doubt that his friend was dying in front of his terrified eyes…

         "C'mon, buddy…" – Razor whispered as he took T-Bone's left paw in his – "Fight it! You *must* fight it! Don't die on me, you hear? Don't you dare to die!" – Heavy tears hung on the corners of the slim SWAT Kat's eyes. They still refused to obey gravity. All was not lost. He had to have faith in Konway. He'd find the right antibiotics to kill those tiny invaders…

         "BLAST IT ALL!" – the bearded scientist bellowed as he rammed the stove's door shut. Razor didn't like his tone a single bit. A pit started opening under his stomach. There was something terribly wrong.

         "Wh-what is it, doc?" – Razor asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

         "None of the cultures I made gave results… I don't understand it…"

         "What does that mean?"

         "I wish I knew, Razor… I… I know I have provided all the necessary nutrients for any streptococcus to grow and still, no Petri dish has any culture on it… It's as if… they weren't there!" – Konway babbled – "I… I don't know what to do…"

         "No…" – Razor whispered. The tears hung no more to the corners of his eyes and dropped freely down his facial fur. All was lost now…

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "Ahhh… Wonderful…" – Viper said as he contemplated the translucent liquids inside the vials he held – "At lassst… Months of planning will finally ssstart to pay off… These, together with my bacteria will sssoon make me the unquessstionable overlord of this foul city…"

         The reptilian scientist headed further inside his living laboratory, to hidden quarters that only seldom have seen light of any source. Without a sound, a gap opened in the massive living wall and Viper stepped inside.

         "Are you there, my pet?" – he asked to the darkness in front of him. His eyes glowed bright golden, scrutinizing the gloom. He could see the form in front of him, crouched in a corner. He walked towards it. – "My pet?"

         A pair of bright green eyes glowed in the dark and headed towards the snake-kat.

         "That'sss it… Come to me… Look what I have here for you…"

         The creature sniffed the vials and let out a soft grunt.

         "Come now. These are for your well-being… Drink them… Drink them all!"

         It opened its mouth and Viper dropped the content of a vial first and then the other. He closed the creature's mouth and held it pressed until he was sure the liquids were swallowed. He smiled.

         "I'll be back in a few hoursss, my pet, for another ride…" – he sibilated – "In the meantime, try to ressst…" – Viper concluded and left the room, chuckling dryly.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "My assumptions can't be wrong… This *is* necrotizing fasciitis, there's no doubt about that!" – Konway said out aloud, more to himself than for anyone else – "The symptoms are clear, there's no mistaking… What is odd is the timing… Whatever strain infected T-Bone must be an extremely virulent one… He's in the final stages of the disease already when he should be presenting only the intermediate ones…"

         The bearded scientist walked from one side to the other of the laboratory, trying to make sense of all the data he gathered. Razor was beside the still form of his friend. T-Bone hadn't moved for hours on end now. Razor couldn't possibly conceive the fact he was losing his friend to some disease he never heard of. He always thought that, if one of them had to go down, it would be in the blaze of battle, struggling to defend their city against the enemy…

         Now the enemy was so small, so insignificant… And yet, so powerful… They couldn't fight something so small as bacteria. And bacteria had the advantage of billions of years of evolution over them.

         Crud, that was so unfair! He couldn't do anything to help Chance! If he could, he would help him but the million-dollar question was 'how?'… How could he, Razor, Jake Clawson, mechanic, electronics wizard, weapons officer, help his best friend defeat the disease ravaging inside him?

         "What was the vector, Razor?" – Konway asked the slim SWAT Kat. Razor was so sunken in his own dark and desperate thoughts he didn't understand what he was asked.

         "What?"

         "What was the vector of the disease? In other words, do you know if T-Bone had a recent trauma of any sort? A wound, a bruise, anything?"

         It was a most welcome question. At least it would force Razor to think, distracting his mind from the depressing and horrifying sight of his dying friend.

         "Let me see… We did cut the soles of our feet a few nights back, when he went to check up a silent alarm on the Manx Zoological Research Center…" – Razor said.

         "Um, yes… A zoological research facility would be a good place to catch flesh-eating bacteria… But I'm afraid that's not the vector… If the bacteria had entered via the rips on his soles, the legs, not the arm would have been gangrenous… Anything else, Razor? Since his right arm was affected more seriously than the rest of his body, I imagine the vector must have used it…"

         "Yes… I thought of that too…" – the slim SWAT Kat said, rubbing his chin pensively – "Wait… Maybe that atypical bruise…"

         "What bruise?" – Konway asked, suddenly interested.

         "There was a strange rounded and reddish bruise on his right forearm… It didn't disappear whereas all the other had…"

         "How did he get it?" – Konway asked as he inspected the tabby's forearm. It was hard to see anything since the arm was very purple now.

         "We went to check up something at a water tower… It turned out to be Doctor Viper attempting to drop something into the reservoir's water."

         "Really?" – Konway asked, interested.

         "Yeah. We managed to stop him but he got away. T-Bone rammed against him and they both rolled down the stairs from the top to the bottom of the tower. After that tumble, T-Bone was riddled with bruises. I took care of him but this one rounded bruise never disappeared…"

         "I see it… It's very attenuated now but I can see a rounded marking…" – Konway said as he narrowed his eyes in order to have a better view of it – "Um, I have some news for you, Razor… I recognize this marking… It's no bruise, no sir…"

         "So it isn't... Then what is it?"

         "I'm afraid I know how your partner was infected… This is the mark of a vaccination pistol… The bacteria were injected into T-Bone's arm…"

         "Viper!" – Razor growled, narrowing his eyes. Rage welled up in his chest. – "I'm gonna rip that wretched snake to *shreds*, I'll rip out his eyes, I'll…"

         "That's enough, Razor! Getting mad now won't help T-Bone. So we know how he got infected. Unfortunately, I hoped it would tell us more than it did… I'm also afraid we might be dealing with a mutant, possibly antibiotic-resistant, if it came out of the clutches of Doctor Viper… That, however, doesn't explain why the bacteria haven't grown in my nutritive media…" – the bearded scientist let out a sigh – "If only I could isolate the bacteria and know exactly what strain it is I could try to come up with a suitable antibiotic… But that would require a pure culture and I can't make them grow…"

         "Pure culture… You mean, a medium that only has that kind of bacteria, right?" – Razor asked. Konway confirmed with a nod of his head. – "Maybe that's the key! The barrel! We took the barrel Viper was planning to drop into the reservoir's water to the hangar!"

         "Get it! Maybe he planned to drop these bacteria into the water… It's a long shot but what do we have to lose?"

         "I'll be back in ten minutes!" – Razor said before he turned on his heels and bolted out of the laboratory. He ran into some enforcers in his way up to the tarmac but he didn't care. His friend's life was at stake. There was no time to think on anything else… He jumped aboard the black jet and darted off the runway, heading to the Salvage Yard.

         "The barrel! How could have I been so utterly *stupid*? It's obvious what it contains. It has to have the same bacteria Viper injected into T-Bone. If I had remembered the barrel perhaps Konway would have already found out a suitable antibiotic for T-Bone… What a waste of time!" – he thought, teeth clenched, paws grabbing the control handle so tightly his knuckles turned white under his fur.

         Seconds later, he went to Speed of Heat, piloting the jet for the first time in that mode.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "Interesting…" – Konway said as he peered at the small monitor attached to the electron microscope. Razor was sitting on a chair beside the still and unconscious form of his friend. When he handed the barrel to Konway a few hours before, his paws were still shaking slightly. Flying in Speed of Heat mode was innerving! He'd never piloted anything that went so fast. Sitting in the second row didn't give him the real feeling of flight at that speed. *Definitely* he was better WSO than pilot…

         Konway had been working feverishly for the entire night. Outside the sun was already high. In order to avoid curious kats wandering around the lab, the bearded scientist ordered quarantine for the facility. No one was to get in—nor out—of the Biotechnology Laboratory. The orange-furred biotechnician had been tinkering for quite some time with some very small gold nets, as far as Razor could see. He'd begun his SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) observation only a few minutes ago.

         "Come see this, Razor… It's fascinating!" – Konway said. Razor got up and looked to the monitor. All he could see were some sausage-like shapes.

         "What exactly am I looking at?" – Razor queried. It was in times like that he wished he had studied a bit more of Biology.

         "Well, you're looking to some coliform bacterial cells." – Konway answered.

         "Yes, and…"

         "And, what?"

         "And, what's the big deal? They look like the hot dogs I ate last week!"

         "Oh, sorry… Well, we were supposed to be looking to bacteria that resemble beads on a string. Those resemble rods." – Konway explained. Razor just sighed.

         "Go to the point, doc…"

         "These aren't the bacteria we're looking for. The flesh-eating bacteria are streptococci. These are coliforms."

         "And, what does that mean?"

         "It may not mean anything… But it could also mean the key to all this mystery… I want to cultivate these bacteria… I have a hunch…"

         "A hunch? And just what is a hunch any good to us?" – Razor growled.

         "Don't underestimate the power of the sixth sense. Many important things in this world were accomplished based on a hunch…" – Konway retorted as he took some plastic vials from the shelves above his lab bench – "I'll require six more hours to prove my theory."

         "What if T-Bone doesn't hold on six more hours?" – Razor questioned the bearded scientist.

         "Let's pray that he does… 'Cause I still have no idea how to cure him…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "The stove clock is ringing, doc!" – Razor warned the bearded biotechnician, who was leaning over the screen of a transmission electron microscope. One thing Konway had to give the Enforcers credit for: the Biotech lab was well equipped, even though the pieces resembled more museum artifacts than modern science instruments. Nevertheless, there weren't many laboratories that could claim to have two different electron microscopes.

         "The six hours are over already? Oh, my… Time flies when we're having fun…" – Konway said as he got up from the chair and headed for the stove. Razor, however, was stupefied with Konway's words. He was having *fun*? He was having a good time while T-Bone was dying in there?

         "This is it, Razor…" – Konway said as he opened the stove's door and retrieved three sets of Petri dishes from its interior – "The moment of truth…"

         The scientist took the Petri dishes to the ascendant air cone created by the Mecker burner on his working bench. Razor went to the bench as well. The slim SWAT Kat watched as the biotechnician took off the adhesive tape from each of the three sets of rounded boxes. The ones on the left had a dark yellow medium inside. The ones in the center had a red medium in them and the ones on the right had a perfectly translucent medium inside. Konway opened the boxes with the dark yellow medium inside.

         "Just as I expected… No bacteria grew on this highly nutritive medium…" – Konway mumbled.

         "Just what he expected?" - Razor thought to himself, starting to lose his temper – "Just what he expected? To fail in growing these blasted bacteria?"

         The remaining three Petri dishes of that set didn't present any colonies of bacteria growing on the rich medium. Konway turned his attention to the Petri dishes on the center. He opened them and a smile spread out in his lips. Razor noticed it and peered into the red medium inside the Petri dish Konway was holding in his paw. There were some beautiful small rounded spots with golden reflexes growing on the medium. Konway searched for an inoculation loop and snatched it. He gently scrubbed the tip of the instrument over one of the golden colonies, scrambling it. Under the colony there was a translucent spot on the agar. The biotechnician opened the remaining two Petri dishes of that set and the results were the same. In the last box there was a huge translucent blot on the medium with a large golden colony in the center of it.

         "Just as I thought…" – Konway muttered. He then proceeded to open the last set of Petri dishes. In there, the medium was as translucent as water. On top of the agar, equally spaced from one another, there were six little discs of paper, not wider than five millimeters. Under some discs there was a red spot with the same width of the disc.

         "Just as I feared…" – Konway mumbled.

         "So, what's the conclusion, doc?" – Razor demanded impatiently.

         "The bacteria that have been injected into your friend are from the widespread species _Escherichia coli_, have been mutated and must have an R-plasmid that makes them resistant to all known specific antibiotics…" – Konway stated out.

         "Which means…"

         "T-Bone is going to die unless we come up with some damn bright idea…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         "Die?" – Razor thought to himself as he stared at the limp body of T-Bone. The dark blisters spread to his entire arm now and his torso was becoming purple. The tabby was fighting a battle he couldn't win… Not without help, at least… - "You're going to die? That's… impossible! Not you… Of all the kats in this world, with all the scum that's out there, why did it have to be my brother to die? Why didn't the Holy Kats pick me instead?"

         Konway raised his eyes from the viewing screen of the TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) and scrubbed them with his balled fists. The tiredness of the previous day and the sleepless night were claiming their price. He was hungry and thirsty too. His last meal had already been digested and assimilated twelve hours ago. He spun in his chair and looked to Razor. He had never seen the slim SWAT Kat so depressed. He watched as Razor took T-Bone's paw in his and raised it until it touched his forehead. He was surprised. It seemed that Razor was praying. Maybe that's what they all needed right now… A miracle… Suddenly, he heard Razor sneezing.

         Yes… It was a miracle that they needed… A miracle or… a touch of extreme science!

         "Are you growing a cold, Razor?" – the bearded scientist asked.

         "Huh? No, I'm getting *out* of a cold. Guess I'm not as cured as I thought, though…"

         "Really?" – Konway mumbled – "This could be the key to the whole puzzle… Razor, come here, please. I'd like you to see this."

         Razor murmured something to his partner and then came to Konway's side. The bearded scientist showed him an unrecognizable image. There were two blurred black lines that shone out from the mass of black, gray and white dots under it.

         "What am I looking at, doc? And, please, go to the point this time…" – Razor said in a tired tone.

         "You're looking to the plasma membrane of the bacteria that infected T-Bone. You probably don't notice it but these bacteria have lost their mucilaginous capsule. Their cell wall is thick but it's mutated as well. You see those little spikes protruding from the outer membrane?" – Konway asked. Razor squinted over the monitor. Yes, there were some little spikes on the outer blurred black line but they were so small Razor almost couldn't see them.

         "Barely, but yeah, I see them. What does that mean?" – Razor queried.

         "That means we could be watching the key to T-Bone's recovery. Those small protrusions are receptors. Usually, normal, non-mutated _E. coli_ cells don't have these receptors. But these mutants have. Whatever Dr. Viper did to scramble their DNA, I'm sure he didn't anticipate the formation of these receptors. Come here."

         Konway guided Razor to the large bookshelf at one end of the lab. He retrieved a large and heavy volume of Bacteriology and rummaged through its pages. – "Here. Look at this micrograph. It shows a normal _E. coli_ cell being attacked by hundreds of viruses called bacteriophages. It's a common procedure, they attach to the host's cell wall, perforate it and inject their DNA into the bacterium. Later, the DNA is either added to the bacterial DNA or it simply uses the bacterium's genetic machinery to make copies of it and to translate it into proteins, which are later combined to form new viruses. Now comes the important part."

         The biotechnician turned the page of the book and showed a diagram to Razor. Konway pointed to the last drawing.

         "Whatever the path, the result is always the same… When the new generation of bacteriophages is finally assembled, they burst out of the bacterial cell…"

         "Destroying it!" – Razor concluded.

         "My point exactly…"

         "Hold it. Hold it. So, you mean that, to save T-Bone from certain death he has to catch a cold? Is that it?" – Razor asked.

         "Actually…" – Konway said as he headed for a large white plastic container – "I was thinking we could use specific bacteria-eating viruses… Like these marine bacteriophages inside this container."

         "Is it safe? I mean, won't T-Bone catch a disease from those bacterio… things?" – Razor asked, concerned.

         "Tell me, Razor, have you ever swallowed seawater when you learned to swim?"

         "Lots of it! It happened all the time until I learned it." – Razor confirmed.

         "Well, then, let me tell you that each time you swallowed seawater back then you were swallowing along *trillions* of these phages. And still, you're with us till the present day, aren't you? Besides, marine viruses and bacteria can't survive much time in other environments than the ocean." – Konway concluded his train of thought with a smile on his lips.

         "Well, since you put it that way… Then what are we waiting for?"

         "One more thing. Remember the receptors on the mutated bacteria? Well, Viper really programmed his bacteria to kill. What he didn't know was that he'd programmed his bacteria to kill themselves as well! The receptors will release chemical signals that will draw the phages to them relentlessly. They will have no means to evade the parasites!"

         "Then let's do it! If that's T-Bone's only chance of survival, then let's get on with it!" – Razor urged.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The black quietness of death slowly gave way to a disturbed deep sleep. Blurred flashes of light and multiple colors mingled briefly with darkness as the sleep became lighter. He stirred ever so lightly.

         The dormant form beside T-Bone raised one eyebrow. Though asleep, Razor was awake enough to feel the weak shuddering of his friend. He raised his head up quickly, which caused a painful cervical lash. The short yelp of pain the slim SWAT Kat let out caught Konway's attention. The bearded scientist spun in his chair and went to the SWAT Kats.

         "He moved." – Razor said as he scrubbed the back of his neck.

         "He's waking up!" – Konway exclaimed – "At last, he's finally waking up!"

         The bearded scientist headed for a communicator and sent for a medical team. By that time, Comdr. Feral had already been informed of what was happening in the Biotec Lab via a thorough report ordered by the Commander himself. He gave orders to the medical personnel to be on stand-by for any request. The tabby stirred some more and, seconds later, he slowly opened his eyes.

         "Welcome back, buddy!" – Razor said, on the verge of tears, a smile spreading wide on his face.

         "Razor?" – T-Bone asked, in a whisper – "What happened?"

         "You were far away from us, lad." – Konway intervened – "Too far for too long… For a moment there, I thought you were gone for good…"

         "I never lost my faith in you, brother!" – Razor said, taking the tabby's left paw in his – "I knew you wouldn't give up the fight…"

         "It's not over yet, Razor. He still needs to go to surgery and get the dead pieces of tissue out. Only then can he be submitted to reconstruction." – Konway warned.

         "Couldn't all this have been avoided if we'd just placed T-Bone inside the tube thing you used to recreate us?" – Razor queried.

         "The viability of such procedure was too small to even be properly calculated. I could have put him inside the Regenerator and add some antibiotics to the liquid but they would have been useless. His arm would be reconstructed only to decay again. No. The disease had to be beaten first and the bacteria disposed of. Only then could the mending process start." – Konway explained – "The Regenerator can only reconstruct your severed tissues, it cannot heal diseases… Besides, you can't always use the Regenerator whenever you get injured. It could render your body's natural self-repair abilities useless. In case the machine would be destroyed, you wouldn't even be able to heal a scratch…"

         "So, the tube has to be used with caution… or we'll end up being victims of it…" – Razor thought to himself. He stepped aside as a medical team stormed inside the lab and took over the situation, disconnecting the old ECG machine, wired up T-Bone to a state-of-the-art machine and started monitoring his vital signs. T-Bone showed a confused and frightened look at the sudden 'attack'. In the gap between two kats, he saw Razor. Reassured, the tabby smiled to Razor and gave him a thumb up. Razor smiled to T-Bone too and also gave him a similar sign before he watched the tabby be carried away to the surgery block.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         His lips spread apart in a maniacal sneer of contentment as the reptilian scientist absorbed the latest news. Though the reception of his small radio set was considerably bad, he had heard something that much pleased him.

         "Time is nigh for me to ssstep in as the nexssst ruler of this insssipid town… and to turn it into the gloriousss primitive ssswamp it once was…"

         Separated by several kilometers, another kat had just received similar news via another media vehicle. His face also twitched, although not in a smile but rather in a grimace of profound grief.

         T-Bone lay down on the bed of Feral's private infirmary, his eyes gazing at the TV screen implanted on the wall without really seeing.

         It had passed five days since he was taken to surgery and placed inside the Regenerator. He'd just exited the tubular machine a few hours ago. As expected, everything had gone right.

         T-Bone looked outside the window, to the darkening skies of Megakat City. The fading daylight matched his gloomy mood. He shook his head in a despondent negative.

         If it weren't Razor to tell him what he had been through, he wouldn't have believed it. Viper injected the bacteria into his system back at the water tower, when they were fighting each other. Konway had explained to him that the strong disinfectant odor he suddenly felt in the middle of the brawl could only have come from a vaccination pistol.

         "It is a security measure. Inoculation with vaccination pistols is a quick and effective procedure but it also has its risks, mainly to its manipulator. So, every vaccination pistol is designed to shoot a spray of disinfectant as it shoots the vaccine in order to protect the user." – Konway had said to him.

         The walls of the infirmary gained life with the wavering light from the TV set and the moving shadows from the twilight. T-Bone wasn't paying attention to it for the time being. His world grew darker around him by the moment.

         Just as radical as being injected with potentially deadly bacteria was Konway's plan to cure him. He could never have guessed, even in his wildest dreams, that he would be injected with massive doses of viruses. Konway proved once more to be right. The viruses hunted down all the bacteria that caused his illness. But they also did something Konway hadn't dismissed they'd do. They also attacked the usual bacterial "flora" that defended and aided T-Bone's organism in some of its tasks. As a result, the tabby was healed, yes, but the cure had left him very weak.

         So the surgery procedure was a very cautious one. The doctors had removed most of the fat and connective tissue that comprised T-Bone's right arm and upper right chest. Just as Konway pointed out previously, the muscles and the bones were virtually undamaged. The bacteria had, however, started to spread to the bloodstream and T-Bone's blood had started to become septicemic, which meant they had to make a blood transfusion. It took quite some time but the tabby was finally rid of the bacteria and of the disease.

         Still immersed in his anesthetic-induced sleep, the tabby was placed inside the Regenerator for nearly four days. His arm was completely regenerated now. He had felt thankful that Razor and Konway saved his life. He had thanked the Holy Kats the fact of still being alive. He'd smiled in happiness.

         Then, when Konway, Feral, Felina and the resident doctor had left the infirmary, leaving only Razor inside, he'd turned on the television and heard the news. At first, he was merely shocked but then, when the connection was made…

         "It's not your fault, Chance…" – Razor quietly tried to comfort his friend as he took off his mask.

         Silence was his answer.

         Jake looked at the tabby. He knew that expression, that stony look on his friend's face. The tabby was hurt, mortally injured. T-Bone slowly removed his mask, his face kept into the ever-darkening moonless skies.

         Chance knew he had done something he would never forgive himself.

         He had shed the blood of innocent…

         He unsheathed his claws and pierced the sheets and the mattress with them.

         "Again, thirty seven citizens fell dead to this ravaging disease. There is little information on the number of infected kats and the Health Department has already ordered the city quarantined. I'm here with Enforcer head-biotechnician, Dr. Conrad Konway, wh…" – the voice of Ann Gora boomed over the cubicle. Jake pressed the button on the remote and muted the TV set.

         "I'm the index case, Jake… Viper intended to contaminate the water reserve on that tower. He failed in that. Instead, he infected me… Only I could have spread the disease throughout the city…"

         A ripping sound was heard when Chance withdrew his arm, tearing up the sheets and the mattress.

         "I *killed* those kats… I killed innocent people…" – Chance heaved out on the verge of tears. He closed his eyes. The remaining shreds of the twilight that still roamed inside the room faded out and gave way to darkness.

         Jake approached the bed and placed his paw on Chance's forearm.

         "You didn't kill anyone!"

         "Yes, I did!" – Chance snapped back – "I was sick already when we went to that cinema. I must have spread the bacteria when I coughed. They must have got stuck to my paws and then, when I touched the doorknob… Many other kats touched that knob after me… Maybe they got infected too and then they spread the disease to their acquaintances and families… Kats alive! The kittens! Maybe they infected their kids too! Maybe I even killed kittens! Holy Kats!" – Chance stated out, horrified.

         "Chance, *listen to me*!" – Jake said, clutching Chance's arms and giving the tabby a shake – "You're getting hysterical! Snap out of it! It's not your fault!"

         "How can you say that? I knew I was sick and I willingly went to that cinema! I could have avoided this contamination; I could have avoided the spreading! I'm responsible for this plague! It just started because of me! People are dying because of me, because of my irresponsibility!"

         Jake was thrown back with those statements. Yes, if Chance had stayed at home the spread of the disease might have been contained.

         "But you couldn't know it wasn't just a cold! The initial symptoms are very alike!"

         "Even a common cold is a potential killer. It was the flu the true winner of MegaWar Two…" – Chance stated out before his gaze went down to his chest.

         Silence fell between the two friends like a heavy blanket. Moments later, Chance gave Jake his sterner look. Jake felt a chill running down his spine.

         "I think you're better off without me, Jake. Next time, my irresponsibility can dead you in. I can't afford to take that chance. From this moment on, the SWAT Kats are reduced to one…"

         A dumbstruck and speechless Jake watched as Chance put on his mask and went out of the window, climbing up to the tarmac on top of Enforcer Headquarters. Moments later, Razor followed his burly friend.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         Jake watched Chance, slumped on the couch, from the garage. The tabby had flown them back to the hangar the previous night. He seemed a Sunday driver, flying the jet at such a low speed Razor feared they'd crash at any minute. But they had arrived safely.

         The sun wasn't up yet and Chance had already woken up. Jake had gone to the window moments later and seen his burly partner climbing up a pile of metallic litter and sitting on top of it. Together, Jake from the bedroom's window and Chance from the salvage pile, both toms watched a red sun rise from the spiked horizon behind MegaKat City. The slim kat watched worriedly has Chance hung down his head while his ears drooped.

         Later that day, clients started arriving to pick up their cars or having them repaired. Jake was the sole host for the customers. Chance had slumped down on the couch right after breakfast. It was closing time now and he still hadn't moved an inch from his start position.

         The living room was immersed in a glimmering bluish light, radiating from the small television set. The room was silent, apart the murmur of the device.

         "Five more deaths have been reported this afternoon, apparently the result of this tragic disease." – the omnipresent voice of Ann Gora faintly reached Jake's ears – "The macabre count reaches, now, its forty-eighth case and more reports of new deaths seem to be coming in every hour, however diligent the efforts of the Civil Protection Services may be in trying to vaccinate all infected citizens. In fact, it appears the disease is still uncontained and…"

         Once more, Ann's voice was cut off in mid-sentence when Jake pressed the 'mute' button on the remote. He crouched in front of the tabby.

         "You said this to me and now I think it's time to say it back to you: give it a rest, Chance!" – Jake said – "You, more than any other kat know this outbreak was *not* your fault!"

         Chance merely sighed in despondency, closing his eyes.

         "You don't get it, do you?" – Chance muttered mournfully.

         "Get what?"

         "You think this is something similar to what you went through when you thought you injured that elderly couple, isn't it so?"

         Jake cocked one eyebrow. He always felt as though he was naked whenever Chance seemed to be able to read what was on his mind with such clarity. It wasn't uncommon that they understood each other just by the way they looked to each other or acted but such deep insights of one another's feelings and thoughts were rare and mostly disturbing. The slim kat had no other choice but to admit Chance was right.

         Chance just gave out a soft and brief chuckle.

         "This is nothing like that time. Back then you though you injured a couple of kats. That feeling crushed you because you've only seldom hurt anybody seriously before. But this… this is different…"

         Chance opened his eyes. Jake saw they were liquid, hurting with sorrow and grief.

         "I can't say I fully understood your feelings back then. I didn't know how you were feeling. I thought you were making a lot of fuss over something small, almost petty." – Jake's jaw lowered a bit with such confession – "The reason for that was that I had already hurt many people during my adolescence, many seriously. I've beaten the crap out of many thugs in my life and during my time in the Enforcers I wasn't different. I've sent many kats to the infirmary, some of them with broken ribs or limbs. I woke up in E.R.'s myself many times too. I almost used to make a living out of that. Until you came along and started to change the way I was, teaching me to channel my rage into something useful."

         Chance got up from the sofa and walked towards the window. He looked to the dark night outside, a grim expression spreading across his face.

         "But I *never* crippled or killed anyone… That's something I don't know how to deal with, Jake. I never killed anyone and now, all of a sudden, I discover I killed almost fifty people single-handedly! How do you suppose I feel?"

         "But you didn't, for crying out loud! Viper did it!"

         "I WAS HIS INSTRUMENT! Damn it, Jake, is it so hard to see that Viper used me as a tool? I'm as guilty as Viper! He killed those kats through me. I'm just as responsible as he is!"

         "Then what are you gonna do about that? Sit down and whine?" – Jake asked Chance, eyes nearly flashing, his face acquiring a grim expression similar to Chance's.

         Chance didn't know how to answer that. He surely wasn't the kind of tom to just sit down and regret what he'd done without doing something about it. But, for the time being, the brawny tabby felt simply powerless and overpowered by a feeling of guiltiness. He raised his arms and let them down in a defeated gesture while sighing out audibly and shaking his head in a negative. He then headed for the hatch that granted access to the hangar.

         "Where are you going?" – Jake asked, a mask of confusion replacing the determinate expression he bore moments ago.

         "I'm going out for a ride. I'm taking the Thundertruck." – he said as he climbed down the ladder. Jake went down after Chance.

         "I'm going with you!"

         "No, you're not." – Chance retorted in an icy tone as he got rid of the overalls and opened the locker marked with a black paw-painted 'TB' – "I need to be alone for a while…"

         "This is starting to sound like déjà vu, Chance."

         The tabby paid little attention to what Jake was saying. His mind was made. He finished putting on his G-suit and passed by Jake on his way to the Thundertruck. Jake clasped T-Bone's arm tightly when he passed by.

         "Promise me you won't do anything stupid." – Jake demanded.

         "Like killing myself? Don't worry. Nothing I'll ever do will erase the fact I'm a killer." – T-Bone gazed down on his chest before proceeding in a low voice – "Perhaps T-Bone is on the wrong faction…"

         "What if the SWAT Kats are needed in the meantime?"

         "I already told you you're the only SWAT Kat now. I can't let my irresponsibility endanger any more lives than it already did…" – T-Bone said as he released his arm from Jake's tight grip with a push and climbed aboard the black vehicle.

         "YOU'RE BEING IRRESPONSIBLE RIGHT NOW!" – Jake shouted at the departing Thundertruck but his voice was subdued by the roar of the off-road's thrusters.

         "I can't do this SWAT Kat business without you, bud… It's like trying to applaud with only one paw…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         A few hours later, nearing dawn, in Megakat Swamp, Dr. Viper marveled at his latest creation outside his living laboratory.

         "The time has arrived, my pet, to make our commission into Megakat Sssssity! My bacteria cleared the way for me." – the reptilian scientist said as he petted the creature's head. His eyes suddenly acquired a bright golden glow. -  " It does not matter if the Enforcers found a way to dessstroy them! They have already opened the door to Megakat City's dessstruction! Now, me and you, my marvel of genetic engineering, will close it!"

         With that, he jumped on top of the beast's back and silently commanded it to gain altitude. His vessel spread out its large membranous wings, creating whirlwinds that cleared the first dawn's miasma rising from the wetlands. With a hard flap of its wings, the beast conquered the skies as it gained enough altitude to dart over the mangroves and retorted trees that made up the swamp's canopy. Its course led both to another jungle, one made of cement, iron and glass.

         An urban jungle named Megakat City.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         T-Bone pulled over at the desert, raising a small cloud of dust around the black off-road. He leaned over the steering wheel, releasing a sad sigh. He stared to the dark indigo skies slowly lighting up ahead of him. It was nearly dawn and the tabby had driven non-stop the whole night. From the permanently traffic-filled streets of Megakat City to the sinuous and perilous Megakat Mountains' roads, from the highways to the desert's trails, T-Bone had rode on them all, sometimes irresponsibly recklessly, other times in a more safely fashion.

         As usual, the movement and the speed calmed him down but only to let an envelope of sadness subdue him. How could he possibly live on with the feeling he helped killing almost half a hundred innocent civilians? And only the Holy Kats knew how many more would die because of his foolish actions?

         No. He couldn't risk it any more. His SWAT Kat days were over. He knew that. At least, that's what he tried to tell his mind. That it would be better to retire.

         But then, the other side of his conscience, his reckless side, kept telling him it wasn't over yet. There was much yet to be done, starting with his victims and then with Viper.

         The final blow came a few hours ago. He'd tried to contact his father. He'd asked him if he could at least help vaccinating the affected citizens. 

         "I'm afraid I can't let you do it." – Feral had said to him.

         "What?" – the brawny SWAT Kat had cried out incredulously – "B-but, I'm responsible for this outbreak! You can't deny me this chance to at least try to undo some of the evil I cast over this city!"

         "I'm sorry but right now you're lacking the psychological abilities to undertake such a task. In your present condition, you might even reveal your secret. I will not allow you to help and I have instructed my Enforcers to arrest you – both my son or his alter ego – until this problem is dealt with."

         "You can't do that!"

         "I gave you an order! Stay put! Is that understood?"

         "Yes, *sir*!" – the tabby had cynically responded before throwing the radio to the ground. He then had rode hard on the desert's trails for the rest of the night, trying to calm himself down. Once more, he realized the irresponsibility of such actions.

         Now, that he was contemplating the rising of a red sun, he understood his double life was over. He engaged the first gear and slowly started driving home. He realized then that the ride back to the hangar inside the Thundertruck would be the last action he would ever perform as a SWAT Kat.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The blaring seemed loud enough to wake up the dead but Jake barely noticed it. Sunk in his own thoughts, he only realized there was trouble a few moments later. He then reacted as usual, running to the receiver, picking it up and contracting his vocal cords to utter a most usual and unimaginative…

         "Yes, Miss Briggs?"

         "Razor, Dr. Viper is attacking! He's thrashing the city with a giant winged beast!"

         "Dr. Viper?" – Jake said in a low tone – "Again?"

         "What was that, Razor?"

         "Huh, nothing Miss Briggs. We're on to it. Over and out." – Jake said before hanging up the receiver. Still with his paw on it, the slim kat looked intensely to the com-link.

         "What does he want this time?" – he thought, clenching his teeth – "Isn't it enough, what he already did? First he turned my friend into a giant mutated frog, then he arrested him, forcing me to do his dirty bidding and finally he infected him with deadly bacteria. Not happy with that, he managed to undermine Chance's self-confidence. He managed to kill T-Bone along with half a hundred innocent kats!"

         His fist crashed against the wall beside the receiver with violence. Jake's eyes burned in fury as he clenched his teeth tighter.

         "Weren't there enough deaths yet, you miserable scum-snake? WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT?" – he screamed in rage. Then he headed for the underground hangar to suit up before climbing aboard the TurboKat and guiding the black fighter out of its underground resting place.

         Next to the receiver, three small red smears paid tribute to the most recent of Jake's rare outbursts of rage.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         In a question of minutes, Razor had reached the business heart of the city, the part that was under attack. At first, he didn't see anything but some buildings in ruins and a scared crowd running in every direction. He decreased the throttle and circled around the general area.

         Nothing. No sign of Viper or of his winged beast.

         Then, he saw them.

         A gigantic form rushed upward like an arrow, nearly colliding with the jet fighter. It seemed to Razor the shadowy form took several seconds until it disappeared from sight once more. The slim SWAT Kat looked up and finally he saw his opponent.

         "Oh, Good Holy Kats…"

         Suddenly, the TurboKat was sent out of control towards the ground. Razor rapidly focused on the situation at hand.

         "Wind shears. That thing caused them!" – Razor muttered in amazement as he desperately tried to regain control of the TurboKat – "C'mon, you can do this, Razor, baby! Piece a' cake! Remember that time with that Viperzilla thing!"

         After five stressing seconds that looked like an eternity to the slim kat, he finally controlled the free fall and entered hover mode. He released a sigh of relief but when he looked to the altimeter he saw just how close he had been from kissing his life bye-bye.

         He landed the TurboKat and opened the canopy, staring at the giant beast hovering tens of meters above him. Suddenly, the animal descended upon him. Razor immediately closed the canopy and braced himself for the impact. The beast, however, only swooped past the slick jet fighter and heaved itself up into the skies once more. The wind dislocation was so intense the entire jet rocked side to side so violently it appeared it would turn upside down.

         Razor once more opened the canopy and took a good look at the beast, now hovering only ten meters above his head. He could finally discern the creature's form. It had an orange color and pincers at the tip of its limbs. Its neck seemed capable of extending and retracting at its will. Its tail bore a lethal-looking spike. It's jaws seemed capable of chewing through stone and steel. Weren't it for its huge membranous wings, Razor would have sworn he was looking at the adult agrecite scorpion he and T-Bone killed years ago by making the toxic substances inside it explode in the higher atmosphere.

         "Like my new and improved agrecite-plated sssscorpion, SWAT Katssss?" – the foul voice of the reptilian scientist reached Razor's hears. So it really *was* one of Tiger Conklin's mutated rock scorpions.

         "Viper must have gotten his paws on one and mutated it further. Well, I've crushed one of those bugs already. I can very well crush yours as well, Viper." – Razor thought. He reached for a missile launcher and quickly aimed it at the winged scorpion. – "Try this one on for size, lizard-breath!"

         The missile hit the scorpion dead center, causing a considerable explosion to light the morning skies. When the smoke cleared enough, the horrified kats hidden in their precarious positions saw that the missile hadn't even made a dent on the agrecite plating of the winged scorpion.

         "Fool of a noodle!" – Viper cackled – "Your puny misssssiles can't arm the thickessst agrecite armor in Nature!"

         Viper looked to where the TurboKat was supposed to be but nothing was there. The jet had vanished.

         "Where did they go?"

         "Right behind you, snakepuss! Scrambler Missile… AWAY! Let's see if your metal-plated monster likes electricity!"

         The Scrambler Missile hit the scorpion and released its electric sting. A mesh of electricity enveloped the winged scorpion for a few seconds as the creature screeched in agony.

         "Wretched SWAT Kats! Let's ssssee you do that again! After them, my pet!"

         Razor guided the jet away from the city. In just a few minutes, they were over Megakat Desert. There, Razor pulled the control handle towards him, leading the jet into a vertical climb. Viper was unimpressed with what he thought to be a poor stunt and the winged scorpion promptly followed the TurboKat in its ascension.

         "That's it, guys… Come after me…" – Razor muttered with a malicious smile plastered on his snout – "Engaging Speed of Heat mode."

         The jet rapidly converted to its sub-orbital form and jumped forward when the four auxiliary thrusters roared to life. With a barely noticeable but still harder flap of its large wings, the winged scorpion maintained its pace steadily behind the ascending jet fighter.

         "Sssomething is wrong…" – Viper thought – "Why won't they attack? It almost seems as if they wanted me to follow them… But wh…"

         Viper's thoughts were cut off when a gelid wind started enveloping him.

         "COLD! You were very wise in luring me and my ssscorpion to the highest layers of the atmossssphere, SWAT Katssss. You know very well we can't fight you here. But your plan has failed! I need not to leave Megakat Ssssity to get back at you! I will be waiting down there, where it is warm. And, you'd better come back quickly, before I redusssse Megakat City to a huge pile of rubble! In the meantime, here's a little gift!"

         The winged scorpions tail arched up and a volley of a translucent light green liquid spurted from the tip of the tail spike, directed at the Turbokat. The substance hit the tail wings of the jet fighter and started to dissolve the alloy of the jet.

         Inside the cockpit, lights of warning flashed up, informing Razor of what was happening on the exterior of the jet – "Hull breach? How come? What's Viper doing? He's falling back! Oh, crud! He got my plan… Okay, Razor, you don't have your partner here to work the controls so you've got to be extra-careful now. Last time you went on your own you almost got yourself killed."

         Razor pushed the control handle away from him and sent the jet in a vertical descent after the winged scorpion. Moments later he disengaged the Speed of Heat.

         "Twin Scrambler Missiles…" – he muttered as the blinking sights on his visor chased the rocking form of Viper's vessel.

         "… locked… " – Razor announced when the sights rested mutually on the slick form of the winged scorpion, changing from green to red.

         "… deployed…" – He said, not without a small tremor of adrenaline running through his body. The missiles were launched. Razor could see the white trail of vapor and smoke as they rocketed from under the jet and towards their target.

         "Impact in three seconds… two… one…"

         The missiles hit the winged scorpion, enveloping the beast in a web of electricity. Again, Razor saw the beast heave up its head and roar out a painful sound.

         "Bingo." – he gloomily said – "That ought to buy me some time to… WHAT?"

         Something that Razor hadn't equated happened. The winged scorpion recovered faster this time, even though he had fired two Scrambler Missiles instead of one. The scorpion turned around in one smooth and swift move. The next second it rushed against the Turbokat, arched back its tail over its head and spurted another gob of acid, which hit the TurboKat's left wing. Razor was too stunned to react to that sudden change of events.

         "It seems you liked my sssscorpion's enhanced formic acid, courtesy of the ant genes I've inssserted into its genome. You'll find it much more acidic than your average formic acid. Well, there's plenty of it for everybody, SWAT Katsssss!"

         The scorpion threw more formic acid against the TurboKat. Razor, now fully aware, averted the shots not without some relative difficulty.

         "Time for some real flying, snakepuss. Let's see if you can out-fly the TurboKat!" – Razor said between gritted teeth. He pushed the throttle entirely to the end, sending the jet hurtling towards the scorpion. The TurboKat passed by the beast and headed for City Hall. The scorpion immediately engaged the TurboKat and chased after it.

         Razor maneuvered around the buildings as they were appearing in his field of sight, barely avoiding some of them. A quick look at the radar screen told him the winged scorpion remained after him at exactly the same pace as the TurboKat. That surprised him a bit. The animal was a skilful flyer. It would take all his fiber to shake that freaky dragon-like genetic aberration off his tail.

         Viper was unimpressed with his creation's flying ability. He'd trained it since its wings first appeared. He still remembered how easy it was to command this beast with only his thoughts. The trip on the scorpion's back was always smooth, even when the mutant flown at impressive high speeds through the narrow vegetal corridors of the swamp. Now, here, in the urban jungle, it proved to be an equally skilled flyer as it was in the swamp. The SWAT Kats' days were surely numbered as long as he had this magnificent creature by his side.

         "C'mon, Razor. You started this canyon tank game and now you gotta finish it! I didn't know this pile of scales could maneuver so swiftly!" – Razor thought to himself as he grabbed the control handle with both paws, twisting it to right or the left as new buildings kept appearing into his sight – "Maybe if I try that stunt… I'm not T-Bone but I gotta try…"

         Razor banked the jet to the right and flew low over one of the main arteries of the burg, followed very close by the winged scorpion. The air dislocation the scorpion caused was so violent that even the unfortunate passer-by kats were knocked over and some of the lighter citizens were even tossed up into the air a few meters before falling like rocks onto the pavement.

         "It's right over there…" – Razor thought. He suddenly banked the jet to the left in one of the lateral streets. The sight of a huge building blocking his way appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Razor didn't stop to think. Trying to remember how T-Bone had done it when the PastMaster threw them into the future, he cut off the rear engines, giving the front VTOL ones a burst, making the jet assume a vertical position. Immediately after that, he gunned the three rear engines, slamming the throttle to the end. A torrent of fire and hot air generated enough boost to propel the jet upwards. The hit was averted. Now, he just hoped Viper and his vessel wouldn't be so lucky.

         In fact, the winged scorpion gracefully turned around the corner only to meet the same stonewall. Viper still ordered the scorpion to spread out its wings and stop, thing the beast promptly did. However, the air cushion its wings formed wasn't enough to prevent the hit and the scorpion smashed against the wall.

         Razor saw that and engaged into a hail of self-appraisal that only took a few seconds, long enough for the slim SWAT Kat to realize that the scorpion hadn't really crashed into the wall but rather landed on it, using its pincers for support. With a jerk of its powerful hind legs, the winged scorpion leapt into the air and unfolded its wings, resuming the chase of the jet fighter.

         "Nice try, SWAT Katssss, but no cigar!" – Viper gloated – "I think we'd better end this kat and mouse game and get on with the serious businessssss. Attack them, my pet! Rip that flying monstrosity to shreds!"

         And so, with a harder flap of its huge wings, the scorpion started gaining on the TurboKat. In a few moments, an astonished Razor saw the huge beast easily outrun him and gracefully turn around and pounce at the defenseless jet fighter.

         The impact was tremendous, shattering the glass of the canopy into a million pieces. The pincers made some rips on the fuselage but nothing more than that. The jet was going down out of control and at a hallucinating pace. Razor tried by all means to level the jet. The control handle seemed to have a life of its own. Razor had to use all his strength to tame it and control the rudders. Reluctantly, the jet stabilized but he was too low in altitude to regain flight.

         Razor prepared an emergency landing. He decreased the throttle and unleashed the parachute while the landing gears were lowered. Still, the jet was going too fast for a safe landing. The jet touched the asphalt of the street and a jolt ran through its entire frame. The jet was still going too fast. The tires screeched and their rubber burned. Suddenly, the front landing gear bumped against something and cracked. The nose cone hit the ground and a shower of sparks came from the underside of the jet. Finally, after running loose for more than five hundred meters, the mangled TurboKat came to a halt.

         Strapping out of the front seat, Razor groggily jumped out of the jet carcass, stumbling a few feet away from it, until he felt a strong wind flogging his body. When he looked up ahead, the most horrific vision haunted him. The winged scorpion had landed right in front of him and was ready to attack with the enhanced venom from the blistering-flies' genes inserted into its genome. Razor was frozen, unable to move a muscle. Soon, it would all be over.

         Razor only felt being pushed aside by the powerful jolt of something wrapping around him. He then felt his body fall and roll on the ground but, somehow, it seemed somewhat cushioned. Moments later, he looked to where he was supposed to be and only a pool of yellowish crud was there. He looked behind him and saw what had hit him.

         "T-Bone!" – he managed to utter in a surprised voice.

         "I turn my back on you for five minutes and you already gotten yourself in trouble, huh?" – T-Bone said, easing his grip around Razor's torso.

         "I thought you…"

         "There's no time for that right now. We gotta deal with Wicked Jaws pronto."

         Razor recollected himself and positioned beside his burly partner, assuming a fighting stand – "You're right. First things first."

         "You puny SWAT Katsssss think you can defeat my ssscorpion?" – Viper gloated.

         "It crossed our minds!" – both SWAT Kats said in perfect unison.

         "Mini-Cement Launchers!" – Razor stated out. Both toms pointed their glovatrixes to the giant scorpion and fired a few slugs towards its face, covering it with cement.

         "Now! Let's make a run for it!" – T-Bone proposed. Both vigilantes ran to the Thundertruck. T-Bone got behind the steering wheel and started the off-road while Razor jumped onto the back of the truck and powered up the laser rifle mounted on the black vehicle.

         "Take your best shot, bud!" – T-Bone shouted over the roar of the engine.

         "It won't do us any good. Not even the megalaser stopped that other agrecite scorpion. We need a plan!"

         "Roger that!" – the brawny SWAT Kat agreed as he steered the black vehicle away from the battlefield.

         "You can run, SWAT Katssss…" – Viper yelled at the departing Thundertruck as his giant scorpion's pincers cleared the dried out and rigid cement mask off its snout – "… but you can *not* evade me forever!"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The Thundertruck came to a halt a few blocks away from the battle site, inside a parking silo. T-Bone got out of the truck while Razor jumped to the ground.

         "So, what's the plan?" – the burly tom asked.

         "I'm afraid I don't have any…" – Razor responded, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his head down.

         "Why don't we just take the bug for a ride like we did with the other?"

         "I tried that. It didn't work. They were on to my plan…" – Razor retorted.

         "Well, then we're in trouble 'cause we can't stay here forever and we *have* to destroy that overgrown tin canned bug!"

         "Let's try to analyze this rationally. What's our problem here?" – Razor questioned himself as he began to pace around the black vehicle.

         "Duh! The problem's that big winged bug out there!"

         "Simpleton's thought…" – Razor murmured before shaking his head, as if to dismiss that idea – "I know the problem is the scorpion, T-Bone. I meant why can't we take out that beast?"

         "Because of its armor."

         "Precisely my point!" – Razor snapped back at T-Bone – "Precisely! As long as the scorpion has that metallic plating, our missiles are useless against it."

         "Too bad we can't melt its armor…" – T-Bone commented before chuckling – "Now there's a stupid idea…"

         Razor suddenly stopped roaming around in circles and looked into the distance with a dumb look on his face.

         "That's it!" – Razor said, turning around and pointing his index at T-Bone.

         "What?"

         "What you just said: melt down its armor!" – the slim kat said as he walked to T-Bone, waving his index towards the burly kat as he spoke.

         "C'mon, that's…"

         "Genius!" – Razor cut him off – "You're a genius, T-Bone!"

         "You can't melt an exoskeleton! That's impossible!"

         "Well, not really melt but rather *dissolve*… If we can open a gash on that exoskeleton, we'll have a clear way for our missiles. And then we'll WHAM-BANG that overgrown termite!"

         "It's a very neat plan, Razor, but where are we gonna get the stuff to dissolve the hardest metal on Gaia?" – T-Bone queried.

         "Yes, I know that's the biggest hole in my plan… But perhaps…Yeah… I think I have the answer…"

         "Fast thinking…" – T-Bone taunted.

         "The scorpion hit the tail wings of the TurboKat with its formic acid and dissolved them. If you recall, the frame of our jet is made of…"

         "Agrecite-Beryllium-Aluminum mega-alloy! The strongest alloy there is!"

         "Bingo! The scorpion will dead itself in…" – Razor concluded with a grin on his snout.

         "So, we have to use its weapon against it… Talk about poetic justice…" – T-Bone said to himself before addressing Razor – "But there's another contingency that could turn out to be a huge liability to our plans… Viper! We've got to get him off his mounting…"

         "That means going face to face with old snakepuss and his pet…" – Razor confirmed as he stroked his chin.

         "Let's do it! I've been wanting some retribution for quite a long time now…" – T-Bone growled before he smacked his right fist into his left palm.

         "You're sure you want to do this? It'll probably be very dangerous!" – Razor queried.

         "It can't be more dangerous than the 'updates' you keep makin' on our gizmos…" – T-Bone said with his usual sardonic smile. He then opened the door of the driver seat and hopped inside the Thundertruck.

         Razor smiled too. That answer wiped away all his fears. It meant T-Bone – the *real* T-Bone – was back, body and soul. The slim kat jumped onto the back of the truck and took his place at the laser rifle. Inside the Thundertruck, T-Bone started the engine and engaged the first gear.

         "Let's burn some *serious* rubber, pal!" – he shouted before he slammed his foot on the throttle, making the off-road jump forward with screeching tires and leaving broad black rubber trails behind.

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         The Thundertruck stormed out of the parking silo, heading for the final reckoning. At the business heart of Megakat City, the giant winged scorpion thrashed building after building with its immeasurable viciousness.

         "This mayhem stops *now*!" – Razor shouted as he aimed the laser rifle at the scorpion and fired some volleys of laser fire that hit the monster's face dead-center, catching both the beast's and its creator's attention.

         "Ssso, you have returned!" – Viper said, ending the sentence with an audible hissing sound, narrowing his eyes – "You've sssealed your fates, then! Attack, my pet!"

         The scorpion hit a final time the building he was destroying, causing a huge chunk of steel and concrete to dart over towards the Thundertruck. T-Bone immediately shifted the truck in reverse and rammed his foot on the throttle. The black vehicle bolted backward with screeching tires and barely avoided being crushed by the chunk.

         The beast then engaged the fleeing vehicle and lunged towards it. Both toms saw the horrendous face of the scorpion coming down on them at full speed, its jaws open and ready to tear them apart. Knowing he could never outrun their flying adversary running in reverse, T-Bone quickly hit the brakes, stopping the vehicle and swiftly shifted it into first gear, putting then the pedal to the metal. The truck jumped forward and Razor had to duck to avoid both falling off the transport and colliding with the snout of the winged beast. Even so, the spiked tail and its pincers still managed to rip the hull of the off-road, bathing Razor in a shower of sparks. T-Bone then pulled the pawbrake as he kept the throttle pressed down and turned the steering wheel completely to the left, bringing the Thundertruck to a spinning halt. Hastily, Razor targeted the scorpion's face and fired blast after blast of laser fire. The blasts forced the beast to land and seemed to daze it a bit but were not enough to stop it…

         "Keep firing!" – T-Bone shouted as he kicked the door open – "I'm going in!"

         "Roger that!" – Razor responded before pressing the button on the side of his helmet, activating their com-link – "And, be careful!"

         "Ain't I always?" - the tabby answered sardonically as he ran towards the giant winged beast – "Of all the foolish things I've ever done in my life this is probably the stupidest, running into the clutches of Death itself…" – he mumbled.

         Bolts of laser fire poured over his head, giving him enough cover to reach his deadly target. Even so, a pincered arm came rushing towards him. A quick forward somersault and the brawny SWAT Kat managed to evade that threat, only to be immediately forced to duck to escape the other arm.

         Between blasts, Razor saw his partner lunging at the scorpion's neck and, with feline gracefulness, heaving himself to the scorpion's back, where he had to face Doctor Viper himself.

         "Missed me, Doc?" – T-Bone asked maliciously as he sat face to face with the reptilian scientist.

         "What the…" – Viper still managed to utter before a fist came crashing down on his face, making him roll back over the dorsum of the scorpion. With the aid of his black claws, Viper managed to remain on the beast's back. Crawling his way up to a steady stance over the winged scorpion, the reptilian kat gave out a roar as his eyes acquired a bright golden glow.

         T-Bone snarled back at the source of his pain and drew out his claws, readying himself to tackle Viper. However, before T-Bone could make his move, Viper spat a gob of his acidic saliva towards the vigilante. The tabby swept it away with a simple jerk of his right paw.

         The tabby did exactly what Viper wanted. With that move, the vigilante had opened his guard. Viper took advantage of it and threw his tail towards T-Bone, wrapping it around the tabby's upper torso, binding T-Bone's arms against his body. The grip of Viper's tail was tight, real tight. It was getting harder for T-Bone to even breathe properly.

         "What'sss the matter, SSSWAT Kat?" – Viper gloated – "Where's your arrogance now that your preciousss air isn't reaching your lungsss anymore?"

         "Haveta… break… free…" – T-Bone thought with gritted teeth as he struggled to get rid of the iron embrace of Viper's tail – "He's… asphyxiating… me…"

         "It'ssss of no use, SSSWAT Kat! My tail has the strongest musssscles in my body! No one can get rid of itsss deadly grip!" – Viper explained before leaning forward, his bifid tongue slithering out of his jaws momentarily as he heaved out an audible hiss – "Have you ever considered a plasssstic sssurgery, SWAT Kat?"

         Viper unsheathed his black claws, which glistened briefly at the sunlight. He rested his right index's one on T-Bone's cheek.

         "Where to ssstart? Decisionssss, decisionssss…" – the reptilian scientist oozed as he scratched T-Bone's face down to his chin, leaving a thin red trail behind – "I know! How about if I sssstart by your *carotids*?"

         Viper drew back his arm, preparing to rip open T-Bone's throat with his claws. He was about to strike when T-Bone's foot came rushing into the snake kat's face, kicking him so hard that dark green blood spurted from Viper's nose. The kick was so powerful that Viper was sent back over the scorpion's dorsum, making the scientist lose the grip his tail held around the brawny vigilante.

         "Wretched SWAT Kat…" – Viper said as he tried to regain his position over the scorpion's back, dark green blood oozing down his snout. Words were barely spoken and T-Bone's other foot came crashing down violently against Viper's snout, sending gobs of green blood flying through the air. Dazed with both strokes, Viper lost his stand over the dorsum of the winged beast and fell limply on the ground.

         T-Bone breathed in the air greedily – "At last… A few more seconds and…"

         The tabby never had the chance to finish his sentence. A jolt and a roar made him clutch the scorpion's hide tightly.

         Without Viper's commands, the winged beast became confused and agitated. Its pincers snapped wildly in the air around the big tabby as he tried to keep his stand over the scorpion's back. Confused, the creature spread out its large membranous wings, gaining the skies with a simple flap of them. Soon, the large creature flew in tight circles and complex daredevil paths that would have made even T-Bone's look lame. The beast knew that something other than its creator was tightly pinned to its back and tried to get rid of it. When it realized whatever was attached to its back wouldn't be shaken off by mere complex flight patterns, the scorpion tried something else. It raised its spiked tail and tried either to wipe out the intruder or to stab it with its spike.

         T-Bone did his best to avoid the deadly blows of the scorpion's spike. Seeing he had to do something fast before he would be turned into SWAT Kat splatter, T-Bone grabbed the spiked tail with both paws, his legs pressing in tightly around the scorpion's sides.

         The beast then became enraged when it felt its most fearsome weapon blocked. It tried to burst free from its captor's clutches but that proved to be quite hard. The scorpion then finally decided to recur to its chemical weaponry. It squirted a gob of enhanced formic acid that barely missed both T-Bone and the scorpion itself.

         "That's it!" – T-Bone grunted between clenched teeth as he tried to lower the scorpion's tail and point it to the beast's side – "C'mon, baby, one more time! Do it for old T-Bone!"

         T-Bone's prayers were answered. The beast shot another squirt of acid that grazed its side, partially dissolving the thick metal plating and opening a small wound. The scorpion arched back its head and opened its jaws to let out a high-pitched squeal of agony. Enraged by the sudden rush of pain, the beast found enough strength to yank its tail off T-Bone's grip. The tail waved wildly around the SWAT Kat as he tried to grasp it again. But the scorpion was enraged and that task proved to be even more difficult than before. In fact, the beast tried once more to impale whatever was on its back in its tail spike, intent in which it partially succeeded as the spike dug deeply in the side of T-Bone's left leg, ripping a heart-rending scream of pain from the tabby.

         Razor stopped tying up Viper for a moment to look up in the skies when T-Bone's scream reached his ears. A frightened look took over his features when he saw the red gush twinkle at the ascending morning sun.

         "T-Bone…" – he murmured before hearing a hissing cackle.

         "You may have defeated me, SWAT Kat, but my ssscorpion will destroy this foul sssity even without me to command it…"

         Razor just looked to the snake kat with a grim expression in his eyes before he resumed tying up the reptilian scientist. He placed a foot on top of Viper's face and finished his task in a rough manner. Even so, he had to control himself not to kill the miserable snake right there. He then headed for the TurboKat and got behind the console of the rear seat. Punching up a few buttons, he activated the jet's upper missile launchers.

         "C'mon, buddy! Hurry up and get outta there!"

         In the sky, T-Bone had had to pin himself against the back of the scorpion with his arms again. His left leg had a nasty looking puncture and the vital fluid was oozing out from it and soaking the fabric of his G-suit's leg, turning it from blue to almost black. Trying to get to the upright position, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he tried to suppress the pain. Grunting and yelping in pain, the tabby tried to focus his mind on the task at hand: open a gash on the scorpion's plating.

         Once again, T-Bone tried to grab the waving tail of the winged scorpion and this time, he managed his intent. Again, the huge beast tried to burst free from T-Bone's grip and, once again, in realizing the task wouldn't be that easy, it prepared to shoot another load of acid. This time, however, T-Bone was prepared. He pulled the scorpion's tail down until it almost contacted the left side of the beast. When the scorpion ejected its potent formic acid for the last time, the squirt hit it's hide dead center, instantly dissolving a large portion of the beast's left side plating and opening a large bleeding wound.

         The scorpion roared in pain as its entire body writhed in agony. Once again, T-Bone had to grab onto the dorsum of the beast to prevent falling off. Slamming the side of his helmet, T-Bone activated his com-link with Razor.

         "NOW, RAZOR! NOW!" – he bellowed.

         "Get out of there! You hear me, T-Bone? Get out of there!" – the voice of his slim friend rang in his ears with the familiar radio tone.

         "*So* roger that, pal!" – the brawny kat said before he slipped off the scorpion and into the air.

         In the TurboKat, the sights on Razor's visor rested on the writhing scorpion. The lock on tone sounded and Razor was about to press the trigger when something rather disturbing happened. In its agony, the scorpion grabbed T-Bone in its pincers. The grip was tight but, for whatever the reason, the scorpion did not snap the brawny SWAT Kat in two. Instead, it just inspected its founding.

         "T-BONE!" – razor shouted in despair.

         "FIRE THE MISSILES! DO IT NOW!" – T-Bone roared as the grip around his waist tightened.

         "BUT…"

         "*NOW*!"

         Razor nearly flinched with T-Bone's command. The tabby could be quite intimidating when he wanted and Razor knew exactly that tone. For T-Bone, the matter was settled. A trembling thumb approached the trigger.

         T-Bone was doomed, ready to accept his fate. It wouldn't matter if he died now or later: death was death.

         But, somehow, in a corner of his mind, it wasn't quite like that… Once more, his reckless side surfaced and, once more, overpowered the tabby's thought. An idea was born out of sheer desperation. He struggled to get his right arm free.

         Meanwhile, Razor's thumb gently pressed the trigger. From the upper missile launchers, two Baby Boomer Missiles rushed to their target.

         The next events happened in less time than it takes to tell. T-Bone pointed his glovatrix at the face of the genetic monstrosity that held him and fired several Mini Tar-pedoes that covered the giant winged scorpion's face. Unable to see, the beast released T-Bone who just fell down, away from the monster. He was safe, he thought. But, in its lunatic agony, the scorpion's tail waved through the air and hit T-Bone with all its might, sending the vigilante away and bringing unconsciousness over to the tabby. The missiles finally met their target, digging in deep into the entrails of the mutated arachnid, where they blew up shortly after. The agrecite plating of the scorpion contained the blast of the explosion but the conflagration reduced its interior to a yellow-greenish pulp that burst from the opening on its side and its jaws, nostrils and eyes.

         Viper watched with horror as his creation was blown up from the inside, falling down from the skies in the next moment like a rock. Razor, however, had other things to look and worry at. Like T-Bone, for instance. He had followed T-Bone's trajectory ever since he was hit by the scorpion's tail. He'd seen his friend make an arc and then fall like a stone. Enhancing the image with the help of his helmet's visor, Razor realized his partner was unconscious and unable to deploy his delta pack.

         Seeing that T-Bone would crash if he didn't do anything, Razor put on his jetpack and maxed the boosters to their limit. Still, Razor realized he wouldn't be able to reach T-Bone in time. In a last resort maneuver, the slim kat engaged the afterburners at their full throttle. The jump forward nearly broke his neck but at least he got to T-Bone in time, clutching his arms around the tabby's torso. But that stunt had its price. The fuel of the jetpack was utterly spent and both toms started falling. Razor activated T-Bone's delta pack and although the violence of their fall was attenuated, they still hit the ground hard.

         Razor let go of T-Bone and rolled on the ground for a couple of meters, twisting his ankle in the process. So it was a limping Razor that went over to T-Bone to try and wake him up.

         "Ooooh… Wha… What happened?" – a groggy T-Bone asked – "Did we…"

         "We did it, pal!" – Razor said as he patted T-Bone's shoulder – "We did it!"

         "Where's Viper?" – T-Bone queried as he tried to get up. The sharp pain that knifed up his leg remembered him of his injury. He grimaced.

         "Easy. Viper's a bit tied up at the moment. Let the Enforcers take care of him. Right now you need medical attention."

         "We're not going to Konway again, are we?" – T-Bone whined – "Who knows what he'll inject in me this time!"

         "Afraid of needles?" – Razor taunted – "That's a new development…"

         "I'm not afraid of needles! It's what's inside the syringe that scares me…"

         "He, he. Roger that… Let's get the Turbokat and the Thundertruck and head home. I think we both could use some vacations…"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

         Meanwhile, back at the business center of MegaKat City, the Enforcers had the perimeter of the zone finally surrounded and moved in to collect their prize. Two Enforcers carried away a frantic and seemingly crazed Doctor Viper.

         "Feral! You mussst let me go! I can't go to jail!" – the reptilian kat begged Feral, who just gave him a disgusted look.

         "Tell that to Warden Felson and your inmates at Alkatraz. Maybe *they* have some compassion for your words. Get this miserable excuse for a kat out of my sight…"

         "No! *No*! You don't underssstand! You mussst let me go! YOU MUSSST LET ME GO! DON'T YOU KNOW HE'LL FIND ME? HE'LL FIND ME AND KILL ME! YOU MUSSST LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

**EPILOGUE**

_»»» Alkatraz Island «««_

         "This new prisoner is an important acquisition for this facility, Commander Feral." – Warden Felson said from behind his desk.

         "I know. It's a long awaited victory for the Enforcers that Doctor Viper is finally behind bars."

         The gray-furred tabby lifted from his chair and placed his paws over the desktop for support as he leaned forward.

         "I heard the Enforcers owe this so-called victory to those outlaws, the SWAT Kats. Is that so, Commander?" – Felson asked, maliciously.

         "They had a minor participation but yes, they helped capturing Doctor Viper." – the brawny brown-furred tom responded, crossing his arms over his chest. Feral didn't like the course the conversation was taking.

         "I believe that is why you didn't press any charges against those criminals, isn't it so, Commander?"

         Feral scowled – "That is correct. And this time, for a change, they barely made any damage at all. So, I had no reason to press any charges against them."

         Felson got out from behind the desk and headed for the window of his office, which had a marvelous view over the ocean. In the distance, he could discern the buildings of Megakat City.

         "Must I remind you, Commander, that, by our law, the simple *existence* of vigilantes is punishable?" – Felson said, still looking out the window. Feral scowled even more.

         "I know full well our penal code, Warden." – Feral replied in an acid tone.

         "You seem to have grown softer, then…"

         "I always take good care of nuisances, Warden Felson… Always… Have a good day." – Feral said in a gelid tone before leaving Felson's office. The warden kept looking out the window.

         "And a good day to you too, Commander… Enjoy it… While it lasts…"

         Meanwhile, in a cell of the maximum-security wing of Alkatraz, a green form laid down in a ball in his cot with his tail wrapped tightly around his body as if to protect it from some unseen danger. Visible tremors ravaged his body and he looked with frightened eyes from one side to the other.

         "I'm not sssafe here… I need my plantimalsss… I need protection… My lab was well guarded. This joint is unsssafe… I'm in danger here… He'll find me… He'll find me and kill me… He'll kill me… He'll kill me…" – Viper muttered.

         "You can bet your life he will…" – someone said in a low tone, although there was no one in sight – "Your days are numbered…"

         "No… NO! LET ME OUT OF HERE! I HAVE TO GET BACK TO MY LAB! LET ME OUT OF HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

**THE END**

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

**_---------------S----------W----------A----------T---------------K----------a----------t----------s----------_**

_Series timeline:_

- The SWAT Kats' Final Resistance;

- Rebirth;

- Purpose is All;

- MadKat and Me.


End file.
